Posted on 03/27/2006 8:50:39 AM PST by Reagan Man
President Bush said Monday that overhauling the nation's immigration laws "is not going to be easy" and warned critics against stoking anti-immigrant feelings by calling them a threat to the nation's identity or a burden to the economy.
"The immigration debate should be conducted in a civil and dignified way," the president said as the Senate prepared to tackle the hot- button election issue of what to do with the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants this week.
Bush used a naturalization ceremony for swearing in 30 new citizens from 20 countries and five continents to press his call for a "guest worker" program. The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, faced a midnight deadline for completing a bill.
"No one should play on people's fears or try to pit neighbors against each other," Bush said. "No one should pretend that immigrants are threats to America's identity because immigrants have shaped America's identity.
"No one should claim that immigrants are a burden on our economy because the work and enterprise of immigrants helps sustain our economy," the president said. "We should not give in to pessimism. If we work together I am confident we can meet our duty to fix our immigration system and deliver a bill that protects our people, upholds our laws and makes our people proud."
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, calls for tougher border security have dominated debate over the knotty problem of controlling immigration.
But a tough immigration-enforcement bill passed by the House last year has galvanized forces that want worker programs for illegal immigrants already in the country.
"We will not accept enforcement-only approaches," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
Immigration reform advocates scheduled a rally Monday at the U.S. Capitol, where dozens of members of the clergy planned to wear handcuffs to protest what they said is the House bill's criminalization of their aid programs for poor immigrants.
More than 500,000 people rallied in Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon the House-passed measures that would make being an undocumented immigrant a felony and erect a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Similar but smaller protests were held in Dallas, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Columbus, Ohio, among other cities.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said Monday it would be unrealistic to round up and deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Instead, he told CBS' "The Early Show," the United States should create a "path toward legalization" based on whether the immigrants are law abiding, pay takes, are learning English or demonstrate other "positive behavior."
Senators up for re-election this year are being forced by the debate to juggle the demand from voters for tighter borders to keep out terrorists and businesses who look to the tide of immigrants to help fill jobs.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday his panel will get a bill to the full Senate before Tuesday, even if it has to work "very, very late into the night."
Senate aides met into the evening Sunday in advance of a Judiciary Committee meeting to debate legislation, but there was no evidence of a breakthrough on the issue most in dispute. Lawmakers have been divided on whether illegal immigrants should be required to return to their home country before they become eligible for U.S. citizenship.
Whether or not the committee produces a bill, Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to open two weeks of Senate debate on the issue Tuesday. Frist, R-Tenn., has offered a measure that would punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and provide more visas. It sidesteps the issue of whether to let illegal immigrants already here stay.
Employers and immigration advocates prefer a bill drafted by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that would allow illegal immigrants to become eligible for permanent residency after working for six years. Both McCain and Frist are likely candidates for the Republican presidential nomination next year.
Another approach offered by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R- Ariz., would let illegal immigrants get temporary work permits for up to five years. They would have to leave the United States but could then apply for legal re-entry.
Aides to Specter, Cornyn, Kyl, Kennedy and McCain spent much of the congressional recess last week trying to find a compromise that would stave off Frist's bill.
They've broken existing laws but don't hurt their feelings.
Debate:
Legal=good
Illegal=Bad.
Debate over, George.
Debate:
Legal=good
Illegal=Bad.
Debate over, George.
Sorry><
"No one should play on people's fears or try to pit neighbors against each other," Bush said. "No one should pretend that immigrants are threats to America's identity because immigrants have shaped America's identity.
%%%
Those were LEGAL immigrants who ASSIMILATED.
Good heavens, Mr. President, can't you tell the difference!!!???
How high will those walls be? How deep are those moats gonna be? Will the electric fences fry folks or just shock`em good? How much jail time will illegals who are caught have to do? And will the 1986 IRCA provisions for employer sanctions be enforced? Any million dollar fines?
Maybe Bush is finally getting it. Then again, maybe he's not.
Call out the troops if these filthy criminals repeat these actions.
This is a criminal matter; do we have nice civil debates on rapist and muderers, or do we pursue and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law?
Sorry George, this vigilante, racist, protectionist, restrictionist, xenophobe is clean out of civil.
They put some bandaid in place, get voted back in office in November and the whole thing goes back to sleep until the next election cycle.
Bush was speaking at a ceremony where immigrants were getting sworn in legally.
That was the context.
Ahh no sorry President Bush there is nothing civil about this issue! Bottom line, protect our borders especially to the south, do NOT allow anymore illegals to sneak in, pass HR4437 please! That's about as civil as I can get at the moment.
ROFL!
Well, with any luck, they will get really, really mad and go home.
As to the assertion that Frist's bill does not address what to do with illegals here, I think enforcing the law against hiring illegals will pretty much address the issue.
Civil? Mr. President, CIVIL????
I guess so long as there is no name calling like VIGILANTE you open borders a--hole!
Whether it is true or not, the President wants us to shut the hell up about it. We're not "anti-immigrant". We are anti ILLEGAL immigrant, pro sovereignty, pro national security, and pro law enforcement. When Bush insists upon throwing the borders open and upon excusing criminals for the crimes they've committed and to even reward the criminals then he is against all of those things.
Good heavens, Mr. President, can't you tell the difference!!!???
We don't need a debate. We need to dismantle the huge magnet that's drawing all these illegals here. End welfare payments of all kinds to any American who isn't severely disabled, so that all the Americans who "don't want to do" the jobs Mexicans are doing, will start wanting them very very badly. Eliminate all minimum wage laws, and all mandatory benefit laws, so employers can hire Americans for what they're actually worth, just like they're doing with Mexicans now. Bar illegals from public schools, and bar them from hospitals as well, except for life-threatening emergency care for below-working-age children who've been dragged here by there law-breaking parents (and arrest the parents who brought them to the hospital, so the whole family can be promptly deported the minute the child can safely travel).
Without that step, nothing else matters. If you give amnesty (or whatever the politically correct term is) and start collecting taxes on and enforcing OSHA and other rules on the current batch of illegals the cost of hiring them will go up and businesses will have an incentive to hire a new batch of illegals. Make sure that there isn't another batch coming over every day.
Step 2. Punish employers who hire illegals.
I'm not talking about little fines as a cost of doing business. I'm talking about where businesses are destroyed if they knowingly hire illegals or go out of their way to not find out their workers' legal status. Although I don't like it, this will probably mean a program where employers can and must confirm employees' status with the government.
Step 3. Deal with the current batch of illegals.
I admit that deporting 12-20 million illegals will be nearly impossible. I'm even willing to talk about amnesty and the road to citizenship for the ones here if the floodgates of new illegals are closed.
Don't try to blow smoke up my backside by talking about a six year temporary worker plan. If they're here for six years they'll probably have citizen children here and will be impossible to send back. If the temporary worker is here for more than one year, admit that it is permanent and deal with that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.