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
Glad he's on board, though.
The PUBBIES should fear and respect the rising tide of True Conservatism in America. We may be ignored but not denied our vengeance to those who would pretend to care!
I was driving and my jaw hit the floor. It's great news though. IF he comes around, then there's hope for Bush.
Which one are we talking about? Clinton, Bush41, Reagan, Carter...? Dubya is trying to do something about the problem. That put him in the same catagory as Reagan.
My HR friends didn't say this. I did, and its obviously a hastely concieved point. Thank you for correcting me.
There are other reasons to not want employers given the responsibility and power of investigating the legal status of applicants. One of which is making private citizens responsible for criminal investigation?
My general point was that legitimite businesses are complying with the law and submitting the identification provided by the applicant. If the government fails to identify forged document or worse fails to investigate suspected documents that is not the fault of the business.
"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
I can't believe he said that out of his own volition. Someone must have put him up to saying this. Whoever is writing his scripts is anti-American.
"What does he really think that his guest worker program will achieve?"
Corporate welfare?
But I don't think he thinks. Someone is telling him what to say, new words, euphemisms and a stock of complete ready-made phrases. I've noticed this over the last four years. Suddenly he utters a completely new word or phrase and fumbles upo it and its usage.
"Labor is already tight with unemployment below average and shortages existing in both geographical and industrial sectors."
BS! There are millions of Americans looking for jobs currently being stolen by third world illegal aliens. I know many of them. Where do you live on the Moon?
Well I agree that immigration reform, like CFR, will be benificial to the Republican Party, but there will be many more than 9 Republican Senators voting for immigration reform when all the details are hammered out.
Do you really know many people who can't compete in the labor market with illegal aliens? Do they speak English, have a drivers' license, don't have any arrest warrants out for them? Why do employers prefer illegals over them? That's strange.
I know one guy who can't keep a job very long who's always complaining about Mexicans, but we just figure he'd rather sit around drinking beer all day while his wife works at Hooters. When rent and truck notes are due she takes on some extra work.
I'd prefer to hire anything before I'd hire him.
I would say number one and number seven on your list top the others.
The others matter of course but the two I mentioned are paramount right now.
How does the President's Plan stop illegal immigration? By filling the demand for labor with legal immigrants. If there are no jobs for the illegals they will not come.
Do you live in a border state? Are your emergency rooms closing because they are the primary care facilities for illegals? Are your classrooms filled with kids who do not speak English, holding the rest of the class back? Are your neighborhoods filled with trash left over from dozens of day laborers congregating and waiting for work? Are your prisons filling up with the criminal class of the third world?
Yeah, why would anyone be passionate about this issue?
first Hillary, now Feinstein. I'm beginning to thing the RATS are using immigration as a wedge issue to divide/conquer us.
Dubya explained why he favors a humane solution to out illegal immigrant problem.
We know that freedom is the gift of God to all mankind, and we rejoice when others can share it.
It'll only work so long as GOP leadership insists on a course that please Wall Street but alienates the rest of the country.
Bull****
He has no plan except amnesty and rewards for illegals. May I suggest building 25 thousand, 40 story pink apartment buildings around his ranch in Texas until he figures out that 80 percent of the American people are demanding somthing done, NOW.
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