Posted on 11/17/2001 5:40:18 PM PST by t-shirt
WIRE: 11/17/2001 8:49 pm ET
In Mexico, Daschle, Gephardt give strongest support yet to more open borders, immigration reform
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt said Saturday that they would forge ahead with immigration reform early next year, including some kind of legal residency for Mexican migrants already living in the United States. Such reforms "are very consistent with fighting against terrorism," Gephardt, D-Mo., told a news conference after meeting with President Vicente Fox during the congressmen's three-day trip to Mexico.
"If you are regularizing status, you are also understanding the people you are dealing with are not terrorists," Gephardt said, noting that those who would benefit are "people who have been in the United States for a long time, paid taxes, obeyed the laws and been very good citizens."
Daschle said discussion on the reforms could be held during the next congressional session early next year. He said legalization would not be equivalent to a broad amnesty, and would require a background check and investigation.
"The opportunity for us to investigate and expel those who ought not be there is something we want to deal with, too," he added.
The two lawmakers also said they were interested in a European Union-style program of public investments and a more open border.
"I think that it ought to be our goal that we have a free pass border at some point in the future," Daschle said.
Daschle's office later said he was not endorsing any particular program, but rather supported having the same freedoms on the Mexican border as those that exist on the Canadian border. Canadians do not need visas to enter the United States, but Mexicans do.
"I think it's unlikely that we will obtain that goal anytime in the short term," Daschle said. "(But) if the United States and Canada have a border like that, we ought to have the opportunity to have that kind of border with Mexico as well."
Fox, facing trouble at home on both economic and political fronts, desperately needs to make some headway on gaining better treatment for Mexican migrants to the United States, a central policy goal of his administration.
Daschle and Gephardt said Mexico's concerns hadn't fallen from the U.S. agenda in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Our commitment (to bilateral issues) is every bit as strong as what it was on Sept. 10," Daschle said, noting that Congress is expected to vote in the next few days to suspend "for at least one year" an anti-drug certification program that has angered Mexicans.
The certification procedure required the State Department to judge other countries' anti-drug efforts and threatened the loss of financial aid for nations that failed the test.
Mexicans, and many other Latin Americans, considered that an affront to their sovereignty.
believe me, if they did not like it, they'd DO something about it!
why do they allow illegal immigration? because the american birthrate in the 1970s fell below replacement--a danger to our economic system.
I would agree with this part. The problem is they are loyal to their families in MEXICO....just as your first loyalty seems to be to LATINOS....if they became part of this country and supported it, it would support them. Instead they come here and send the money HOME to Mexico. Let them prove they want to be part of the system, which means first entering the country LEGALLY, and then we will be glad to have them as citizens and voters.
Exactly, while they all live behind gated communities and have secret service protection from all the the illegal alien criminals and terrorist.
i don't know one illegal mexican that does not speak english!, and i interact here in socal with many everyday.
and, you want to be serioustly taken as not a racist?
does president george w bush support your attitudes?
Then why are there so many Latino gangs in Los Angeles and Northern Virginia?
I wouldn't have to support them by way of medical care, housing aid, food stamps, welfare, schools and jail costs. The schools wouldn't be overcrowded. The medical facilities could stay open. My insurance premiums might go down if I didn't have to pay for all the "uninsured motorists" that reside here that just hit and run. English might be spoken again. The crime rate might go down. Towns turned to slums might be refurbished. Sounds good to me.
BTW, I cook, don't do fast food.
I just love it when you admit in public that you are aiding and abetting criminals. Tell us Ken. Exactly how many ILLEGAL ALIEN MEXICANS do you know in Southern California? And have you done your patriotic duty to the UNITED STATES and called INS with their names and addresses so they can be re-located back to their homeland? And if not, why not?
the city councils here do not allow even the police to contact the ins.
* Democrats lead Republicans by a comfortable margin in the partisan identification of Latino voters. The gap is even wider among immigrant Latinos who have not yet become citizens. As many of these non-citizens naturalize, the political affiliation of Latinos is likely to shift still further toward the Democratic party.
* Across all nationality groups except Cubans, the Democratic advantage in party identification among Latinos is greater than 20 percentage points, and this is true across nearly all states. Even among Cuban-Americans, the once large GOP lead has dwindled to just six percentage points.
* Latinos become more Democratic, not less, with increasing education and tenure in the United States. Rising income also does not appreciably change Latino partisanship.
* Contrary to the thinking within the Bush White House, there is no evidence that a significant percentage of the Latino vote is "in play."
* Current immigration policy is slowly but steadily shifting the nation’s electorate toward the Democratic Party.
* There is no indication that the Republican or Democratic positions on immigration policy explain the orientation of Latino voters. Rather, it seems that the core positions of the Republican Party are simply not as attractive to Latino voters as are those of the Democratic Party.
give me a break.
i'm going out for the evening. bye.
At it again, eh keeeny?
Thought this "racist" labeling of your's was settled when *we* agreed, the whole world's racist.
...except you.
Now here ya are at it yet again, eh keeeny?
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