Posted on 05/29/2006 5:26:39 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
Republican members of House of Representatives continue to send their collective message to President George W. Bush and Senate liberals such as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): They are overwhelmingly opposed to any deal that provides illegal immigrants a path to citizenship through a program that amounts to "amnesty" for over 12 million illegal aliens.
The heated rhetoric emanating from the GOP members of the House significantly dims the prospects that President Bush will win the immigration compromise he is seeking, according to the GOP establishment within the Beltway.
The Republican opposition spreads across the geographical and ideological boundaries that often divide House Republicans, according to interviews with about half of the roughly 40 members whom political handicappers consider most vulnerable to defeat this November. Republicans -- from moderates such as Chris Shays in suburban Connecticut and Steve Chabot in Cincinnati to conservative J.D. Hayworth in Arizona -- continue to say they are adamant that Congress not take any action that might be perceived as rewarding illegal behavior.
Shays, one of the few vulnerable House Republicans open to a broad compromise with the Senate, said strong protests from his constituents this month prompted him to come out for the first time against "citizenship for undocumented workers."
“It would be a huge mistake to give people a path to citizenship that came here illegally,” he told the Washington Post.
Surprisingly, Shays' constituents are Northeast liberals who have voiced their concerns over uncontrolled illegal immigration and the reality of porous, unprotected borders.
The House Republicans have molded a near united front against Bush’s approach to immigration. The message of GOP representatives is clear: the president faces a tough time if he plans to coax the House to embrace what he calls a “rational middle ground,” along the lines of a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate on a 62-36 vote last Thursday.
While these lawmakers are reflecting the will of their constituents, GOP leaders in the House are basing their legislative strategy regarding illegal aliens on how it will affect members in the upcoming November elections.
According to the Republican National Committee staff and political strategists, over 75 percent of the 231 Republican members are steadfastly opposed to the Senate bill or even a watered-down version of it. Add the Democrat congressmen who are also vulnerable this fall should they vote in favor of "amnesty," and it appears there is a good chance the Senate bill -- chock full of goodies for illegal aliens, as well as the Mexican government -- will die a death of a thousand cuts.
While a few polls, which some believe are skewed, show bipartisan support for Bush's immigration giveaway, most GOP lawmakers said the House plan to secure the borders and enforce existing immigration laws is unquestionably the safer political stand in his or her district. House staffers have intimated that enforcement of existing laws coupled with tough, no-nonsense border security is the winning hand in the political game.
Most of these lawmakers reject the argument made by the White House and Senate Republicans such as John McCain that the best long-term political strategy is to craft a compromise that is appealing to many Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in America.
House Republicans view that argument as pandering to a potential voting-block which ultimately leads to big-spending programs and redistribution of wealth -- a hallmark of liberal-think.
House Republicans appear ready to forcefully debate the issue with their Senate counterparts. The shaky Senate coalition, led by McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), that passed the so-called comprehensive legislation is held together by a common belief that it would be unwise and unworkable to deal with the borders only and not solve the problem of what to do with the 11 million illegal immigrants living here. The coalition will crumble if the House Republicans prevail, according to senators and aides.
But House members fire back that if current enforcement of laws aimed at cracking down on employers of illegal aliens are strategically implemented, the jobs would disappear and so would many illegals.
Lately, the Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has announced several cases in which employers were arrested for hiring and harboring illegal aliens, but voices within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative branch of DHS, claim that there is little support by their superiors to go after some of the top corporations that employ tens of thousands of illegal aliens.
Last week, the White House dispatched their wonderboy, Karl Rove, who is lobbying -- some say strong-arming -- House members to reconsider their positions and the hope is that more moderate Republicans will cave-in to Bush's wishes. At the same time, there are letters, e-mails and telephone calls flooding Washington, DC from Americans who wish to see the Senate's immigration bill blasted to smithereens, with pieces of the tattered bill littering the floor of the House of Representatives.
Beat me to it.
One thing that I don't understand is that we seem so eager to help Mexicans. How about freakin' helping them get rid of their Corrupt Government and Fox instead of budddying up to this PoS.
We don't buddy up to Castro or Chavez.
Either way, how about us forcing them to fix their sh#@ hole of a country before we run the enormous risk of allowing tens or hundreds of millions of them coming here to ruin ours and trend it towards what theirs is.
Gangs, corruption (making that in our government look like cheating in a game of solotaire), and a massive lower class lead the way down there.
As it now stands, opening the lock doors with the two levels of water (societal standards) at massively different levels can only yield disastrous results. We need to fill the lock with water first before opening the doors and always keep that lock there as a buffer.
Either way, with all the time, risk, money being wasted on things that only threaten the viability of the U.S., perhaps our focus should be on helping/forcing Mexico to clean up its own mess before we allow them to come in and sh&% inside our borders.
illegal immigrant alien invader
P.S.
I like your moat idea!
You are probably right, but the Senate is more desperate for some sort of bill and thus more willing to compromise. I can see some sort of the phased plan whereby secure borders must be the number one priority. Once that is accomplished and certified, the second phase of a guest worker program, no amnesty, i.e., citizenship, could be developed.
As much as it pains me to say it, RR is probably not the best example to call on in this case. Simpson-Mazzoli was his shot at immigration control and it wasn't a good one. I personally prefer Dwight Eisenhower's Operation Wetback as our model. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
People....please start making phone calls....don't just b*tch about this - DO SOMETHING!!!
I have.
That's because we're the good guys.
(Of course, being good buys, we enter a war and fight it to a stalemate.)
If our goobermint cozied up to Castro and Chavez our leftist-socialist state department would be all over these commies with kisses. Our security (which is so woefully inadequate now) would resemble swiss cheese as we'd be sharing everything with our new commie friends.
Forget about our CIA. It's been a socialist think tank for decades.
Back to the Mexicans.
Their country is indeed a cesspool on a par with Namibia or Zimbabwe (or is it Zimbabme?)
NAFTA was rolled out to solve all the economic problems of Mexica. After all, the U. S. has been bankrupt for eons and has loaned money to Mexico that would rebuild the Bush-destructed New Orleans and feed all the lazies for years.
The problem with NAFTA, among the myriad, is that now goods are manufactured in China, transshipped to Mexico where the goods are labeled "Made in Mexico" then shipped up to el Norte to the throngs of eagar and simple American consumers.
As long as the Mexican government continues to perpetuate itself in a form of incest, Mexicans will leave and come North.
Erecting a wall, deporting all illegals will send them back to do combat with their filthy government, but then they'll end up like Venezuela or Cuber.
It doesn't matter. We should be tired and sick to the point of puking to let our hearts bleed a little more for someone else. Deport the whole lot of them, seal the border and recall our ambassadors to Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador.
I heard John Hancock, a local radio host, say the same thing about 3 days ago.
Change that to rinos not up for re-election in '06.
You forgot that they also brought the bubonic plague to America.
Should have burried it 4 or 5 years ago.
Buried what?
IMO...
He's waiting for the right
moment to step back up to
the leadership position.
Already the newscasts
this a.m. are saying that
same thing. Who's going
to hear him over the
Holiday Weekend? He has
to have a time when the
nation will tune in to
hear him. Bush, Rove,
Cheney, et al. are far
from stupid. It's the
senators who are blowing
in the wind.
And the Drive-by media
are prating the words of
War Hero Murtha right now.
and
Sounds good to me.
You can always invite the world in. You'll never get them out.
I'm still awaiting hearing about Mexico (likely the government itself in some form) selling "trips to the U.S." to anyone around the world that has the cash.
A new U.S. immigration system is now in place. Why spend time in long lines? Why risk the U.S. Government saying "no?" Why fill out oodles of paperwork? The Mexican government has eliminated all of that.
Should be interesting what kind of riffraff gets fasttracked for instant immigration status (effectively) over the coming years.
Sensenbrenner: Bush Turned Back on Bill
"He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House," Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. "That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all."
Sensenbrenner chairs the House Judiciary Committee and would be the House's chief negotiator on any final immigration package for Bush's signature. He said it was the White House that had requested two controversial felony provisions in the bill the House passed last winter.
"We worked very closely with White House in the fall in putting together the border security bill that the House passed," he said. "... What we heard in November and December, he seems to be going in the opposite direction in May. That is really at the crux of this irritation," he said of Bush.
"I was very disappointed in the president's speech," Sensenbrenner said. "I think he doesn't get it."
Asked if Bush mollified conservatives in the speech by calling for sending National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border, Sensenbrenner said, "He failed in that completely."
And despite Bush's insistence that he was not calling for amnesty, Sensenbrenner said, "Well it is an amnesty, because it allows people who have broken the law to stay in the country."
In fact this Senate Bill stipulates grievous punishment for any Federal official who even attempts to investigate the likely fake credentials that are submitted by those illegals who will apply for the "path to citizenship" rubbish.
And if they used false SS numbers you can bet they also used false names and ID......
So expect MULTIPLE claims for SS and other benefits.
And what about the Selective Service registration for all males aged 18 to 26......?
This is a question on the IN400 Citizenship petition form......and non registration is an instant barrier to citizenship for regular legal immigrants.....also any federal benefits like Pell grants and school funding.
And don't get me started on the insanity of granting illegals low cost in-state tuition ANYWHERE IN THE US....that even a citizen can't get.
Keep those faxes and phone calls coming, folks!
I would have said cards and letters, but your congresscritter doesn't actually see those for weeks after you send them, due to detoxification procedures. Calls and faxes are received and tallied - and a few actually delivered verbatim - within 24 hours.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
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