Posted on 06/19/2006 10:23:58 AM PDT by kellynla
Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first.
Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits.
The immigration debate is the first major issue on which Mr. Bush finds himself opposing a majority of Republicans in Congress and depending on Democrats to deliver a victory. In their letter, the conservatives tell Mr. Bush to side with his fellow Republicans in Congress or risk repeating the 1986 immigration law that promised enforcement and amnesty but delivered only the amnesty.
"Border and interior enforcement must be funded, operational, implemented and proven successful and only then can we debate the status of current illegal immigrants or the need for new guest-worker programs," 39 conservative leaders write in the letter, to be released today. A copy was obtained yesterday by The Washington Times. The letter was addressed as well to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.
Across the House and Senate, 85 percent of Republicans voted either for the House bill, which is an enforcement-only bill, or against the Senate bill, which dramatically increases immigration and offers a new right to citizenship for illegal aliens.
"That's pretty overwhelming among congressional Republicans. That shows a distance from [Senate bill sponsors Sens. John McCain and Edward M. Kennedy] and what the White House has been saying recently," John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who is helping organize the letter, said in an interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
ping
Bush to base: "No."
Base To Continual Bush Bashers, find a new topic to whine about. We are sick of this continual whining about a dead issue. In case you were all squealing too loud to hear it, the Republican House leadership all ready said this is DOA.
This is a prime time for a third party to take over. There lots of issues in which American voters are not being heard. This is just one.
Its not going away bub....not till someone does something about it. You sound like the whiner.
I would vote for Bush again against Kerry/Gore..et al...I will never give up the fight against illegals till they GO!
and I am not alone by a long shot.
One-issue third parties never get off the ground. Hell, third parties never get off the ground, period, unless they're bankrolled by a billionaire.
Here's what I don't get. If they did enforcement first, showed an ability to shut down the border pretty tight, and shut up about amnesty, there is a good liklihood that people would get less strident about letting some of the illegals here now stay (I wouldn't like it, but I'm probably not the majority in that). So, why is the White House insisting on doing it the stupid way?
susie
The President is being hard-headed on this issue.
BUSH TO BASE: I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
What?
susie
Maybe, but the borders are not secure yet. We'll keep shoutin' 'til he does right.
the Republican House leadership all ready said this is DOA
Oh, okay.
Guess that means that the Border(s) are NOW secure?
Guess we can all rest easier now that you have made us aware of something that somehow, escaped us--ignorant Bush-bashers, that we are.
Thanks. Henceforth, we will just all shut up and no longer criticize El (Open Borders-Pro Amnesty) Presidente.
NOT!!!!
As much as I'd like that idea, you'd guarantee long-term occupation & control of the WH & Congress by the "dims". 3rd Pty only splits the right!
Someone recently offered a compromise I thought was interesting.
A red card for those who've had a green card for X years provided they pass all background checks.
It enables them to stay and work, but it must be renewed regularly, and it prevents them from applying for US citizenship from within the US. The only way they can apply for citizenship is if they choose to return to their country of origin, give up their red card, and make normal immigration application.
I think it would also filter out the La Raza/MS-13 criminal illegals and the ones who truly want to come here and work.
Base to Bush-bots
Stuff it, it's not a dead issue and it never will be.
"He needs to keep the focus on the economy and the war."
I agree completely. Immigration is one of those issues where people are going to be angry no matter what the president does. The war and economy, in contrast, demonstrate the reactionary ideas Democrats advance, which works to our advantage.
One issue third partiers can turn control over to the leftists.
So the jerks who are pushing open borders, citizenship and all this other tripe, over American Sovereignty and obeying the LAW have a choice.
They can pull their heads out of their collective asses and get with the program to shore up our borders and protect our country, or they can assist in the destruction of their party at the polls.
The Immigration issue is NOT going to go away, no matter what they may think or wish.
Or have a really big cause, like slavery or ...
Since the last time a third party won the presidency was the Civil War, I'd sorta like to avoid it.
The President is hard-headed on almost every issue. I don't happen to agree with him this time, but he always sticks to his guns ... something I have long admired in him.
More and more I'm agreeing with those who say, "And then what?" What are things going to be like in 10-20 years. Every bit of this anti-immigration argument is right here, right now, and ignores the future.
1) The Mexican birthrate has dropped to 2.3 kids per family. In short order, this will turn the illegal flow from a flood to a trickle, without anybody doing anything.
2) http://www.nascocorridor.com/ This is a picture of what is being planned--an ultra trade route that will re-create America's heartland--red States--as the artery for massive trade not just with Canada, but with all of central and South America. Trillion of dollars flowing into the US economy.
3) The vast majority of Mexicans that enter the US have assimilated faster than ANY other national immigrant group or race. They are almost 10% of the US military. And unlike the images seen from LA, in Phoenix, they are completely integrated and become middle-class in short order. There is an entire county in Arkansas that is majority hispanic--almost all employees of Tyson Foods.
The variation here between productive and valuable and worthless and criminal is enormous. And while I am all for building the wall ASAP and imprisoning and deporting criminals, I cannot abide throwing out millions of hard-working, middle class Americans, many of whose children no longer even speak Spanish.
Big difference.
So, what is Bush's point in doing it THIS way when he could probably get what he wants in a little different way? I'm not of the opinion that he's stupid, and I really don't think he's that insulated.
susie
Good.
We need every voice out there shoving back...hard...on this in case they get any suicidal thoughts of slipping this through the "shadows" of the night lesgislative votes.
Oh, and for those hypeventialating that you haven't managed to silence our voices on this? Invest in a paper bag. If we succeed not only will America benefit, but so with the Republicans and this President won't have this disaster pegged to his legacy. What you would have us accept would result in just what you fear, loss of Republican power and a disastrous legacy for him.
Just remember this. You take joy in claiming "Alito and Roberts" as accomplishments while knocking down O'Connor and Kennedy. But Bush might well have had his "kennedy and O'Connor" if we hadn't denied Miers. I know, some of you still think she'd have been "super" though nothing in her record or even questionaire she was given a do-over for indicate that to be so.
same thing here. Reagan signing amnesty was a mistake, we're not going to make a worse one now voluntarily. Though at least he enforced the laws when it was passed, This President has a reluntance to enforce the ones already on the books.
Well, it would make it alot more difficult to argue for deportation.
susie
As you say, the issue is not going away.
The president is worried about losing the Hispanic vote into the future. I see his concern.
His compromise isn't being bought, though. He needs to get off of it. Let the Zarqawi death and the return to focus on the war give people a chance to get away from the immigrant discussion for a while.
This is a prime time for a third party to take over. There lots of issues in which American voters are not being heard. This is just one.
President Fox: Deje a mi gente en(let my people in).
President Bush: Oí eso(I heard that!).
Ok, so there won't be an amnesty law. At what point will the President start enforcing the laws already on the books?
Lots of people, including me, disagree with you.
WELCOME TO FR!
>Top Conservatives have written President Bush<
Not to speak of the repeated emails to the White House by the grassroots of America, demanding the same thing.
The decision on immigration is too important to leave to the politicians who have enormous pressures on them.
The decision belongs to the people.
The people MUST vote on this.
IMO Bush should halt all immigration and all citizenship, and call for a nation wide referendum.
An issue this important should not be demagogued by politicians for political advantage.
The Senate bill may be (and I hope is) DOA but we still need to address closing the border.
" The vast majority of Mexicans that enter the US have assimilated faster than ANY other national immigrant group or race. They are almost 10% of the US military. And unlike the images seen from LA, in Phoenix, they are completely integrated and become middle-class in short order. There is an entire county in Arkansas that is majority hispanic--almost all employees of Tyson Foods.
The variation here between productive and valuable and worthless and criminal is enormous. And while I am all for building the wall ASAP and imprisoning and deporting criminals, I cannot abide throwing out millions of hard-working, middle class Americans, many of whose children no longer even speak Spanish."
I don't know where you get your information but you have been ill informed.
One third of ALL THE KIDS IN THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH!
One third of all the incarcerated are ILLEGALS
It is costing the border states alone SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR to allow illegals to stay here.
And from the L.A. TIMES, not exactly a anti-illegal rag.
1. 40% of all workers in L.A. County (L.A. County has 10 million
people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This was because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3's of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal
alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L.A.County 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak Spanish (10.2 million people in L.A.County).
(All 10 from the Los Angeles Times)
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare.
http://www.cis.org
Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.
The cost of immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 BILLION a year, [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University].
The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a NEGATIVE
29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.
In case anyone wants to add their voice to the chorus, email your wishes to president@whitehouse.gov. - and good luck!
Killing the Senate bill would be a good thing (but it's not done yet). However we need a fence and real enforcement against businesses that employ illegals. Until that is done, it isn't a "dead issue". In the first five years of his adminstration Bush cut the already pathetic enforcement by 95%. He has zero credibility on the issue. He wants open borders, and is willing to team up with the Rats against his own party to get them.
Excellent!
Then why should he continue to promote a massive invasion of illiterate, non-English speaking hispanics that in all likelihood will vote for the same corrupt marxists (Dems??) that create disaster in Latin America? I only wish he would show concern about losing the American vote.
Your evidence that they assimilate faster than other groups ?
I think you're confusing legal with illegal when you talk about the 10% in the military. What percentage of those are illegals vs legals with valid green cards?
The thousands seen marching ARE the very people you're promoting as assimilating. Yeah right, they're assimilating right into our schools, emergency rooms, welfare system and the like. They love America so much that they are carrying Mexican flags, speaking Spanish, and calling for open borders so more just like them can come too. You like your tax dollars and SS going to illegals ?
What part of the word illegal do you not understand ? They are all lawbreakers, not just those who end up in jails. Your screen name gives you away. Are you an illegal from Mexico too ?
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.