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
Very well said. Amen, brother.
With regard to the employer sanctions, we must have that - not only to ensure that we can identify the illegal aliens but also, while some keep protesting about what it would do to employers, there is another employer that we shouldn't be so concerned about, and these are employers down through the years who have encouraged the illegal entry into this country because they then hire these individuals and hire them at starvation wages and with none of the benefits that we think are normal and natural for workers in our country. And the individuals can't complain because of their illegal status.
We don't think that those people should be allowed to continue operating free, and this was why the provisions that we had in with regard to sanctions and so forth. And I'm going to do everything I can, and all of us in the Administration are, to join in again when Congress is back at it to get an immigration bill that will give us once again control of our borders.
#262 is for you.
But if you want to use technical definitions I guess I can start using the phrases "undocumented worker" and "out of status immigrant".
I'm enjoying reading your posts. I'm confused by the date at the top - 10/28/04...
Sorry, that should be '84...
In fact, I think Reagan was referring to you, specifically.
Thanks! Appreciate it very much!
Isolationist xenophobia is not conservative.
Ah, I see. But growing government and pushing government spending out to the orbit of Jupiter is? A government and a White House that stands wiking and nodding at literally millions entering our country illegally is? An administration that wants to reward millions criminals is? Knowing this would only attract millions more criminals to crash our borders.
What utter BS.
Nice post.
Had your state issued the driver a license? Don't you have to show proof of insurance to get inspection stickers and license plates? The fine here is $500.
.
"the President has a closed mind on his open border policy,"
The President doesn't have an "open border" policy.We haven't had on open border policy since 1885.
.
"only a moron couldn't connect the dots. "
Your words, not mine. President Bush has not only increased security at the border itself, but has extended the "zone of protection" to the gateways of Mexico and other southern nations as well as departure points in European and African countries.
After 9/11, the objective became to stop terrorists from entering the U.S. There has not been a single confirmed case of a terrorist jumping the southern border. The security objective has been met so far. The fact that the security policy did not also keep out as many Mexican gardeners as you would like is no reason to refer to someone who doesn't understand the difference between security and immigration a moron.
"I do not want to give business the duty and responsibility to investigate legal status."
Your HR friends are obviously extremely inept. If you read the government requirements of the I-9 you would know that copies of the original document are required by law. You don't transpose numbers when you make copies.
Yep. You ever driven in Boston?
Nice find! Thanks for posting.
>>. I wanted to know what intrinsically was the difference between a person who is legal one day and illegal the next.<<
One is a criminal, one is not.
Whom do you want as a neighbor?
A person who respects the law or someone who says, "Your laws don't apply to me because I said so!"
Whom do you want as a co-worker??
A person who respects the law or someone who says, "Your laws don't apply to me because I said so!"
Whom do you want as a son in law???
A person who respects the law or someone who says, "Your laws don't apply to me because I said so!"
It's working towards a National ID Card, didn't the staffer tell you?
>>The President doesn't have an "open border" policy.We haven't had on open border policy since 1885.<<
I have no idea how many times I have explained this commom sense reasoning, but once again just for you.
America has Border Patrol Agents who do risk their lives protecting Americas borders.
The chain of events every night is the same. It is a simple 1 2 3 occurance.
1)The 1st 1000 illegals who come across get caught.
2)They are taken to the deportation centers by the arresting agents.
3)This means that the arresting agents are no longer at their duty stations - - - to apprehend the next 4000 who successfully come in every night of the week!
READ CAREFULLY, The fact that our federal government will not fund the Border Patrol to a point where the arresting agents can remain on station means that this is a planned occurance by the federal officials which allows the existance of an open border policy after the first 20% of illegal invaders have been arrested.
READ CAREFULLY, The federal government will not increase the size of the deportation centers, nor will they fund it so that the system will handle more illegal aliens every night.
READ CAREFULLY, It is the obvious intention of the federal bureaucrats to allow 80% of all illegal aliens who wish to enter these United States illegally to do so!
READ CAREFULLY, This means that we have an 80% Open Border Policy because we only have the personel and facilities to process the first 20%.
Some people such as yourself refuse to see the 80% Open Border Policy because you do not wish to, however that does not mean it does not exist. How do you think 20 MILLION people, men, women, teenagers and babies have successfully walked in to America.
You have lots of Reagan quotes on your homepage, would you like to respond to his position regarding illegal immigration from post #262, which is completely contradictory to yourz?
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