Bush will win on Immigration to save the Republican Party.

[Pukin Dog]

Just a little dose of reality for some of you going nuts over the Immigration issue, because there is NO chance that you will win on the border enforcement issue. No chance whatsoever. Only after a migrant worker program passes, making most of these illegal aliens legal, is there any chance at all to have meaningful border enforcement.

Bush is not running for office anymore, but the Republican Congress is in need of a big victory in November. This issue will kill our chances to maintain the majority, and knowing that, Bush will likely veto any bill making illegal immigration a felony, if that bill does not include the migrant worker program (call it amnesty if you want) needed to hold onto Business and Hispanic support for the Republican Party.

The Illegal Immigration Genie is out of the bottle, folks. You can’t stuff her back in without losing the House and/or Senate in November. Pragmatic minds will rule in the end, and that is a bitter pill you best swallow now.

FReepers can’t will elections for the Republican Party, but we sure can go a long way towards losing them, if we can’t put our common sense ahead of our passions on this issue. I live in San Diego County, and I see the problems with illegal immigration on a daily basis.

Whether you like it or not, much of the commerce of this country does depend on these folks to do jobs that Americans won’t do for the prevailing wage.

So, you have a choice, you can demand the border enforcement bills on their own, or you can swallow hard and consider everything you will lose if we turn off 10-15% of the electorate, in addition to the business community that depends on these workers. Yeah, they broke the law, and so do the people who hire them.

So what?

Yeah, I said it, SO WHAT? The time to be worried about that was when there were REAL Republican majorities in the Border States. It is too late now. This is a problem that cannot be solved, but only managed.

It is possible to be right and stupid at the same time. Pete Wilson tried this a few years ago, got all kinds of support for it. It passed, and Pete Wilson is gone. Then a judge overturned it anyway. That is exactly what you can expect to happen with these current bills as well. Some judge will put an injunction on enforcement, but by the time that happens, we will be knee-deep into impeachment proceeding under a Democrat Congress.

Bush won’t let that happen, neither will smarter members of the Senate and House. You won’t win, you can’t win, but you can shoot yourself and the Republican party in the head (even if you are not a member) by pursuing a program that does not include amnesty or whatever you want to call it.

We lost this one.

Get over it. There are bigger battles ahead.

[sinkspur]

Bush's version is the only version that can pass, so it will pass, just so both sides can say they did something. Mark it down.

Dog, while it's true that Bush's version is the only version that can pass the Senate, there is a hard-nosed bunch in the House who will never vote to accept a guest worker program. Their numbers have grown.

I'm still saying there won't be a bill, as this guest worker issue is a show-stopper for many in the House.

[dagnabbit]

This issue will relegate the republican party to political suicide.. If you are a republican your leaders are stenghening THE ENEMY.. activily, strongly, in your face, and with no apology...Ockhams law demands, whos the idiots.. Republicans OR democrats.?..

Well put.

Bush Jr. is proving to be every bit the stammering confused little idiot he appears to be.

[Pukin Dog]

Thanks, mom.

[Grebrook]

I know at least a half dozen people who have told me that if Bush does not start deporting illegal immigrants en masse - and lock down the border by using the military and not just some "fence" that they can easily scale or tunnel under - they will not show up to vote in November.

It'll be just like in 1994 when we stared down the Democratic party. The libs didn't get what they wanted, even though they controlled Congress and the White House, and we showed up in force and wiped them out. It'll be the same thing reversed if Bush doesn't get serious with the border, and drop this amnesty-lite. No one is swallowing this.

[Marine Inspector]

Fact: Mexico accounts for the vast majority of illegal immigration; hence they get the brunt of the pent up frustration over illegal immigration.

[Flavius Josephus]

I agree with you, that going after the pimps (employers) will do the most good, but if the wall (human, or concrete & steel) doesn't get built they'll come right back. I demand they get jail time if we deport and he comes back.

[Types_with_Fist]

but there can be a better, more advantageous time to do what is right.

Sorry Dog. It's always time to do what's right.

[pollyannaish]

Welcome son.

[Marine Inspector]

I guess you don't want the problem solved.

Nice talking with you.

[Flavius Josephus]

I won't stay home, but I'll undervote (not check the box for) any lousy rino that supports these parasites.

[Pukin Dog]

there is a hard-nosed bunch in the House who will never vote to accept a guest worker program.

That is if they can survive the ass-whippin they are going to get in the coming weeks from the Senate and White House. Minds will be changed. Tancredo will be on his own shortly.

[Politicalmom]

You forgot: No more anchor babies!!

[IamConservative]

"how do you propose getting rid of 20 million people????, where do you hold them, how do you transport them???"

Not sure if that was directed toward me or the thread in general. IMO, if you remove the economic advantage the illegal has in the market, they will leave on their own. An illegal can't raise a family on $10/hr and have half of it confiscated anymore than an American citizen can.

[calex59]

ILLEGALS cause a lot of accidents, and these accidents wouldn't happen if the ILLEGALS were not in this country. They also commit a lot of crime. 30 percent of our felons, the ones locked up, are ILLEGALS. These are facts, not conjecture.

To say someone is prejudiced because they point this out is BS. You have an agenda and it is plain what it is. Get the F**king ILLEGALs out of the country, I don't care what country they came from, and keep anymore from coming in. If that is prejudice, then fine, I am prejudiced.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I think you're right about Minimum Wage Laws practically forcing small business to hire illegals.

Here's another problem:
Big difficulty for humanitarian church groups: how can you tell whether a particular homeless, hungry, or sick person is a citizen or not? For that matter, how can an employer tell whether a job-seeker is a citizen or not, given the ubiquity of fake Social Security numbers and other forms of false identification?

Looks like we'd have to have some kind of forgery-proof universal I.D. system (using computerized iris-scans? fingerprints?) covering every person in this country without exception.

Are we willing to go along with that?

(If I'm wrong about this --- I'd LOVE to be wrong about this --- so don't just call me a dork. Explain why.)

[Siena Dreaming]

Gross misstatement.

I posted very early on what I felt was the solution.

[zook]

Of course. And I'm not supporting illegal immigration. But I don't think the political will exists in this country, nor will it ever exist, to start rounding people up and deporting them on a massive scale. I support securing the borders, but I also support realism when it comes to those workers already here.

If we find that we have to pay minimum wage to Americans to pick lettuce, we'll soon find that there is no more American lettuce.

[Flavius Josephus]

Are you suggesting that Vicente Fox wishes to commit genocide against his own people?Yes. Or actually I don't think Fox cares one way or another as long as they keep sending the money back so he can tax it.

[Marine Inspector]

Bush Jr. is proving to be every bit the stammering confused little idiot he appears to be.

Agreed.