Free Republic

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush reassured Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday he was committed to getting the U.S. Congress to approve broad immigration reforms, including a guest worker program. (snip) "I'm committed to having a comprehensive immigration bill on my desk, and by comprehensive I mean not only border security, a bill that has border security, a bill that has security enforcement in it, but a bill that has a worker permit program in it," Bush said. Republicans are split on whether to back Bush's call for sweeping reforms to create a guest worker program...

House conservatives yesterday issued a dire warning to President Bush and Republican leadership that they will pay a devastating political price if they proceed with a guest-worker program or anything resembling amnesty for illegal aliens before securing the borders and enforcing existing immigration laws. "They will remember in November," Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, said of voters nationwide. "And many of those who have stood with our Republican majority in the last decade are not only angry, many of them plan to be absent from the polls" this year when the entire House and one-third of the Senate is up...

CANCUN, Mexico - With Mexican President Vicente Fox at his side, President Bush gave Congress a long-distance push Thursday to open the United States to immigrant workers who have been sneaking across the borders to fill low-paying jobs. "We don't want people sneaking into our country that are going to do jobs that Americans won't do," Bush said at the end of a private meeting with Fox, where the issue was on top of the agenda. "We want them coming in in an orderly way, which will take pressure off both our borders." The meeting between the Mexican and U.S....

Imagine that you and several thousand of your closest friends decided to sneak into Mexico illegally. And imagine you then gathered in one of the largest cities, waving American flags and blocking traffic. Imagine you demanded in English that the Mexicans change their laws to accommodate you. .... Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado is engaging in what amounts to open warfare with the White House on the issue. His aide Will Adams told me yesterday that Tancredo and other House conservatives intend to block any bill that contains either amnesty or guest worker provisions. ....Bush always has had ample authority...

Republican pollster Jan van Lohuizen, in a memo written for RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, warns that if members of Congress try to drive a wedge between themselves and Pres. Bush, it'd be akin to adding weight to an anchor. GOpers are "W Brand Republicans" whether they like it or not. And van Louhizen, who has polled (often secretly) for the Bush White House under the RNC aegis for years, is worried about low turnout. Time Magazine first reported on the memo this weekend, but the full text is below.