Posted on 01/27/2005 7:15:50 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The battle within the Republican Party over immigration policy was joined Wednesday as President Bush vigorously promoted his proposal for a guest worker program and conservatives in Congress introduced an alternative proposal to tighten immigration restrictions.
At a news conference, President Bush said again that he considered his guest worker proposal "a priority" even though Senate Republicans left it off their list of top goals. "A program that enables people to come into our country in a legal way to work for a period of time, for jobs that Americans won't do, will help make it easier for us to secure our borders," Mr. Bush said, adding: "I know there is a compassionate, humane way to deal with this issue. I want to remind people that family values do not end at the Rio Grande border."
Party conservatives, however, have strenuously opposed a guest worker plan since Mr. Bush introduced the idea in 2001, even staging a losing revolt over its inclusion in the party platform at the 2004 Republican convention. Many conservatives call the president's ideas "amnesty" - a term Mr. Bush disputes - because his plan includes ways for currently illegal immigrants to obtain temporary worker permits.
On Wednesday afternoon, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, again introduced a measure to block illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses.
At a news conference, he said the committee would not consider other immigration proposals, implicitly including the president's, until his own measure passed. A similar measure was removed from a bill to enact the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission last year. Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, is expected to introduce a driver's license restriction this year.
Mr. Sensenbrenner said his bill was primarily directed at border security, distinguishing it from other changes in immigration policy. "Immigrants are not terrorists, except a few of them," he said. "The legislation that was introduced today is designed to get the bad apples out of the barrel before the barrel was spoiled."
He said a group of House Republicans had written a letter to Mr. Bush urging him to provide full financing for provisions in last year's antiterrorism bill doubling the number of border patrol agents and tripling the number of beds for detaining illegal immigrants over the next five years. The Department of Homeland Security said recently that it was planning a smaller increase in financing, drawing the ire of advocates of tighter immigration laws.
Asked about the president's proposal, Mr. Sensenbrenner said his committee was "going to be plenty busy with other priorities, a lot of which are the priorities of the White House."
In an interview, Representative Chris Cannon, a Utah Republican who supports the president's plan, said a guest worker program would not amount to an amnesty because it would include a monetary penalty for currently illegal immigrants. "The people who want to kick them all out are not reasonable people," he said.
But Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado and chairman of the Congressional immigration caucus, vowed to defeat any program that in his view would reward lawbreakers, even questioning the president's motives. "Could it be just the corporate interests, the money interests that rely so heavily on cheap labor?" he asked
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I like it. Kinda catchy.
Works good - lasts a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.
Agreed. I am curious to what you think a realistic solution to this would be - many say that fencing and patrolling the border is not practical. I don't know...
---As I think the biggest PROBLEM is that we don't control the border from a defensive standpoint, I'm all for that fencing and patrolling. Even if we do go after the root cause (which most consider to be easy work for illegals in the U.S.), we will not have solved the real concern, which is that noncitizens can cross the southern and northern borders far too easily.
I'm thinking that the best way to combat the problem is to allow the state governments to cut off social services to illegals - with a constitutional amendment if necessary. I am not usually one to want amendments, but it seems like the courts are interpreting the constitution as giving non-citzens the same rights as citizens. The next step would be to go after employers. I know this resembles the failed war on drugs, but the number of employers are much smaller and easier to find since the illegal workers are in public.
---I'm with you. The difference, as you say, is that there is little to no way for illegal workers to get hired if the known illegal hiring corners are regularly busted, the agents who mule them into large employers are tossed into jail for a long term, and the large employers that they depend upon to look the other way are, too. Hiring illegal workers is not something you can do in the privacy of your bedroom, and illegals have to have some place to congregate to be picked up by their employers.
I also don't buy the "they do jobs that American's won't do" line. Who did the jobs before illegals?
---No kidding. It's as if no Americans ever picked a crop or worked in assembly plants. And it's not like they wouldn't do it for a wage that's better than illegal wages. The real problem here is that American companies consider themselves to be serving the world market now, and having to compete on that scale means they try for the easy cost savings that international and illegal labor promise. Never mind that hiring illegals slams hell out of our wages and labor standards--those companies can sell competitively to foreign markets. /derisive tone
I agree, but the states ain't much different.
What has Dubya promoted that he hasn't got? War? Tax cuts? Education reform? PBA ban? Medicare reform? He has passed a lot of stuff conservatives like and don't like.
Didn't you notice? This President is all about doing something. You may not like what he does, but if he is promoting his plan he has a stratagy to get it passed. Bank on it...I sure as hell do.
Well, all that is true, but you're anti-immigrant, so you're wrong. /sarcasm
Dubya is the most powerful man in the world. He is admired and feared. You are a hyperbole generator.
Why? Kickbacks. Politics is a dirty business.
I enjoy how you refute points with facts/logic and the natives go insane for 150 posts. Thanks.
Actually, it will.
Y'all said the same thing about his re-election.
What facts/logic? More like hyperbole/rhetoric.
He hasn’t refuted anything.
This thread shows otherwise. As do the rest.
What strange bedfellows these "real conservatives" have? Did you know Sheets Byrd got an A from Americans for Better Immigration? He's such a good conservative.
Awww..too bad for you! Another post that you will ignore. Several communities in Iowa have enacted zoning laws to keep OUT meat packing plants who wanted to open. For the simple reason that they always drag illegals, crime, and hideous costs with them. So, yes...they turned down the lure of a couple hundred jobs, and instead concentrated their efforts on helping legitimate businesses.
In addition, we just had a local community pass a law banning chickens in town. Yes...that's right. Our wonderful "aliens" were raising chickens and slaughtering them in the front yard. The neighbors were a little peeved about rivers of blood running down the end of the driveway. Some cities don't go lightly into the third world.
You are on the WRONG side of this issue; both in terms of the popular opinion and basic logic. But it's never stopped you yet!
Could you share your thoughts on how illegal immigration is good for country. This is a serious question as I am openminded.
Illegal immigration is not good for the country.
Hence, a guest worker program to fill the social economic class Americans aren't willing to fill. ;)
Why do you think that Americans aren't willing to fill those positions?
Then keep on arguing with anti-immigrant Freepers like stopem. It's easy to win arguments against them.
Right. The liberal rats you guys keep electing have been doing a spectacular job of keeping the budget in line. Its just those damn Mexicans who screw everything up for CA.
Sure we'll pay a few cents more for ciggerettes. But what's more important - keeping prices low or keeping children from smoking?
Sure we'll pay a few cents more for energy and gasoline. But what's more important - keeping prices low or saving the environment?
Sure we'll pay a few cents more in tariffs. But what's more important - keeping taxes low or protecting the overpriced wages for union protected highschool dropouts?
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