[WOSG]

Here is my take on the immigration situation. Dont be misled by those who say there "is no solution" or "we dont have the answers". We do. We have a lot of ideas and answers, it's just a matter of having the courage to do them.

[MEG33]

I agree with you.I will vote for Bush because I certainly don't think anyone else will implement these suggestions sooner.

He did create a discussion and that is a good thing.Perhaps some good will come out of the firestorm.

I do believe one thing that keeps us from helping solve the illegal immigration is that real bugaboo,a hard to duplicate national ID card.

[supercat]

The Bush guest worker proposal however doesnt address causes of illegal immigration and our failure at many levels to stop it.

Ah, but it does. One of the major causes of illegal immigration, and the major political obstacle to stopping it, is the demand for illegal immigrant labor. Although it may not sound like it, Bush's proposal does deal with this, albeit in a rather sneaky way.

In a few placed, illegal immigrant labor might be competitive with the labor of citizens and permanent legal residents if it had to be performed on the same terms, but in most cases it probably isn't. The only reason illegal immigrants have a competitive advantage is that employers can rely upon them not to squeal about violations of labor laws. It is that inability to squeal that sets illegals apart from everyone else.

So what does Bush's proposal do? It subdivides the present group of "undocumented workers" into two subgroups: (1) those whose employer will go on record as hiring them; (2) those with no willing employer of record. People who take the first path won't have a competitive advantage over citizens and permanent legal residents, so there won't be much demand for their labor. And people in the second group may be regarded as freeloaders and deported as such, since they're unwilling to provide any evidence that they actually work.

[Dane]

This is actually a good article, with sound reasonable proposals and nil on the hyperbole.

Bush didn't use an executive order as Clinton would have and the debate is now in Congress's lap.

[gubamyster]

ping

[WOSG]

*** IMMIGRATION DEBATE PING ***

[WOSG]

Immigration ping

[HennepinPrisoner]

Bump for later read, WOSG. I glanced over it and it looks like you really did your research!

Going to bed now, though. Will read tomorrow morning.

[AzJohn]

Nice job of research and analysis on this.

Your title highlights the biggest problem with the President's proposal. Without increased enforcement it would only lead to more legal and illegal immigrants. And at this point it is not enough to have generic boilerplate in a speech about the need for workplace enforcement. The Administration should be proposing or at least supporting some specific ideas on this, like the ones you offer.

[hoosiermama]

BUMP for morning read!