Reaction to Bush immigration speech

cnn ^ | 5/15/06 | cnn

[wotan]

(CNN) -- The following is a sampling of reaction to President Bush's speech on immigration Monday night in which he proposed deploying National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border:

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican:

Rohrabacher, a leading immigration critic in the House, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he was "very disappointed" by the speech.

"He's playing these word games about massive deportations again, which no one is advocating and does not do anything to further an honest debate," said Rohrabacher, who also took issue with Bush's distinction between a legalization process for illegal immigrants and amnesty.

[wotan]

Nothing significant will be done except amnesty.

Rohrabacher nails Bush.

Better learn Spanish. (!Aprende espanol para no se lo arrepentiras, gringo!).

[ovrtaxt]

Where was the suggestion to end the 'anchor baby' policy? (and please don't bring up the Amendment- that's clearly based on a misapplied interpretation by a liberal SC.)

Where was the threat of jailtime for employers who hire illegals?

Where is welfare reform- as in shutting off benefits to border violators?

Where is the proposal to remove illegals from public education?

What's with expanding the path to citizenship? We can't even properly implement the one we have now!

And we're going to SPEND MORE MONEY! yay! Go big government!

This whole speech was a huge disappointment. But, at least we'll get a 'virtual wall', and a national ID card. Such a deal.

[ovrtaxt]

Meanwhile, Mexico continues to be a cesspool of poverty and corruption- the REAL reason that all these folks want to come here.

Absolutely nothing about holding that band of racist crooks in Mexico City accountable.

[ovrtaxt]

And for all you GOP defenders who will no doubt come along and try to rip conservatives a new one, here's the shining example of the kind of friends you are making:

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat:

"We know where the House Republicans stand. They want to criminalize undocumented immigrants and the nurses, volunteers and people of faith who help them. The president told us tonight that he is for comprehensive reform: Now he must lead. The president has the power to call up the National Guard, but now he must summon the power to lead his own Republican forces in Congress to support a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform."

[KCRW]

Wow- Do you honestly believe what you are saying here? You honestly believe that George Bush has any control over the poverty and corruption in Mexico?

[wolfpat]

There's nothing we can do about Mexico. However, once we arrest the illegals, we can give them courses in civics and guerrilla warfare, and send them home with AR-15's. That'll solve the problem.

[hershey]

Last night someone on CNN, maybe Wolf Blitzer, came out and said twenty million illegal aliens were in the US. He didn't call them 'aliens', they were 'immigrants'.

[ovrtaxt]

Sure. Vicente is his boy! or so he says...

Seriously- we are the most powerful nation on the planet, and Mexico is a pissant dictatorship who regularly allows drug cartels and slave traders to violate our border. They provide safe haven for murderers fleeing American law enforcement, and have for years.

We have good reasons to put pressure on them, and we have ways of getting our point across.

[ovrtaxt]

:^)

That's not a bad idea!

[Coldwater Creek]

If I was you I would just stay at home and not vote or find a third party canadaite.

[Coldwater Creek]

Correction candidate.

[ovrtaxt]

Yeah, I'm feeling a little homeless today. Overall, I like George Bush a lot. But right now, right after last night's disaster, I'm having a hard time feeling the love.

[Coldwater Creek]

It is all in the eyes if the beholder. I thought that it was a great speech.

You can build walls that will reach the heavens, but you will not keep these people out if they want to come.

[azhenfud]

"You can build walls that will reach the heavens, but you will not keep these people out if they want to come."

The Israeli fence debunks that myth.

[spatso]

I think that the new language may be appropriate. The President seemed to come at the problem from two directions. First, seal the borders to stop the wholesale migration. Second, deal fairly and equitably with the millions of undocumented persons who remain. Subject to that policy being ratified policy by Congress it would seem to me that the illegal aliens can now be called undocumented immigrants.

[Coldwater Creek]

Apple and oranges!!!! Israel is bombed almost every day.

[LegendHasIt]

President Bush’s speech last night contained no surprises for me. It was pretty well delivered; The right tone; It SOUNDED sincere and reasonable… But in the final analysis it was the wrong words and the wrong ideas for the long term survival and soverignty of the United States.

I kind of feel sorry for the President even though I believe he is 99% wrong on this particular issue.

It is obviously wearing on him even more than the other significant issues of his Presidency…. Perhaps because he knows he is wrong and he realizes he is not only "stabbing his 'base' in the back" but also a high percentage of the ‘loyal opposition’ on the Illegal Alien Invasion problem.

President Bush IS supporting amnesty, (just like we expected), but without the courage to call it amnesty. A small cash payment and go ‘to the back of the line for citizenship'’….. But these people are expert at ‘taking cuts’ in the line, so I expect those that find some advantage to getting citizenship (Medicare, Social Security etc.) Therefore, we can expect to see them, in the near future, in the FRONT of the line, WITH 20 - 30 million of THEIR EXTENDED FAMILES, who are still currently residing in their countries of origin.

The current plans to send the National Guard to the border are a double insult; They are an insult to the conservatives demanding action (but getting only a pretense of action). And they are an insult to the National Guard members and their families… President Bush is planning on deploying them to run errands and do maintainence tasks for Border Patrol EXECUTIVES and do construction work that is more in the venue of the Army Corps Of Engineers or private contractors….

(Speaking of that, I wonder if they are going to have to do environmental impact statements, archaeological surveys and all the other crud that are normally required by the government and the lawyers to build their little bits of actual, physical fence and the larger, pretend bits of ‘virtual, high tech fence’.)

{As a guy who spent a good part of his early career getting into places that he wasn’t supposed to go [in the service of Uncle Sam] and later got paid big bucks by government and private industry for PREVENTING other people from getting into places out in the middle of nowhere that they weren’t supposed to go; I can tell you with some degree of experience and authority that a ‘virtual fence’ is a ludicrous idea unless you have real people with real powers of enforcement within five minutes response time}.

I was kind of hoping that President Bush had ’seen the light’ because I still support him on 60% of his endeavors… But on this subject, he lived up to my expectations again… This time as an expected disappointment.

[ovrtaxt]

That's an asinine statement.

Do you have locks on your doors? Doesn't matter, I feel like coming over. Hope you have lots of food in the fridge! I think I like your car too. I'm sure you got the 'no door locks' option...

[ovrtaxt]

Apple and oranges!!!! Israel is bombed almost every day.

No, the argument is whether fences and walls work- not the intentions of the violator.

[Dane]

Didn't you know? To azhenfud, Christian hispanics are the same as suicide bombing muslims.

One of the most tronic threads on FR was when two cops in Norehtern Virginia were shot and killed. Speculation was running rampant that it was part of hispanic gang hit, when it was found out the perp was a messed up white bread goth wannabe, the thread basically turned silent.