Posted on 10/07/2006 10:39:57 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
President Bush shoehorned a plug for his guest worker program between making a joke about an award winner and listening to love songs at a White House celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Bush said that as lawmakers debate immigration policy, they need to remember that while enforcing U.S. borders is important, it is only one step in the struggle to stop illegal immigration. He pressed Congress to pass his guest worker program to legally bring in new foreign workers and give some of the country's illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship.
"We must understand that you can't kick 12 million people out of your country - that we must figure out a way to say to those that if you're lawful and if you've contributed to the United States of America, there is a way for you to eventually earn citizenship," Bush said.
"Nobody in our land wants to grant automatic amnesty. But everybody in our land understands these people must be treated with respect and dignity," he continued. "There are citizenship lines for people from our neighborhood. People ought to be given a chance to get at the back of the citizenship line and have a chance."
Latin pop singer Ana Christina closed the event in the East Room with three love songs, singing one in English and two in Spanish.
Bush opened the event with a few jokes.
"I am proud to be here with Lt. Col. Consuelo Kickbusch," Bush said about an influential Hispanic motivational speaker and the highest ranking Hispanic woman in the Army, who won the 2006 Hispanic Heritage Award.
"Interesting name: Kickbusch," Bush said. "Sounds like a political campaign."
Too bad he ain't half the President Eisenhower was.
And for reference, Pakistan and India moved upwards of 100 million people in 1948.
I am developing Bush fatigue syndrome.
I wish W would just shut up when it comes to immigration. He's dividing his party and risking the republican congressional majority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
I don't shout often.... but this is one of those times...
This is BS and he isn't going to convince me that it can't be done.
Establish a hospital reporting system with federal sanctions against those who don't report. Break up gathering places for pickup work.
Find some. Deport them. Find some more. Deport them.
Make it hard and unrewarding to be here without permission. You won't even need a fence.
Preach it!!! And everyday citizens in the country pretty much agree. It's the rarefied and bought-off elite that don't. On both sides of the aisle.
The lack of common sense and national self-preservation in our president (and most of our so-called leaders and legislators) on this issue is both alarming and saddening.
"We must understand that you can't kick 12 million people out of your country."
No, but approximately 3,300 a day for ten years would work. That's about 66 ILLEGALS or so -- average -- per state, per day, for ten years!
He is completely lost in the weeds on this issue. If these people don't have a job and can't get government services, they will deport themselves.
Start rounding up illegals with warrants out for their arrest. It won't take much of that and illegals will stop going to work, and sending their children to school for fear of being arrested. Before long there won't be money for rent or food, they will then self deport.
The solution to resolving the immigration crisis is as plain as the sun in the sky. Use existing laws to crack down on employers hiring illegals. Illegals arrested for any violations will be automatically deported. Ban illegals from using social services. They'll have no choice but to self-deport and go back to their 3rd-world toilet bowl.
BUMP
I saw a suggestion some months back that seemed promising. Legislate severe limitations on insurance payments when illegals are involved. Soon nobody would rent to them, finance home and car sales, employ them, etc. The risk would be too great.
[a] No we don't.
[b] No we don't.
[c, and the money quote] "while listening to love songs at a White House celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month".
While I'm not against a fence per se, drying up the market for illegal labor would be striking at the heart of the problem.
Deport those we catch, and fine the living crap out of those who exploit those who come here illegally.
9 million would self deport so fast it would make our collective head spin.
L
I can't understand the incongruity of the President bemoaning those he views as defeatists concerning the war in Iraq yet being himself the Defeatist in Chief when it comes to the protection of his own Country.
Just one of the problems is it is more like 50 million. 11 million have been coming in every year since someone came up with that number.
Did you just land here from Mars?
WHO is advocating rounding them up and shipping them back?
All "we" who are fed up with this situation are suggesting is that (and this, unfortunately, will NEVER happen) laws presently on the books be enforced; that ALL benefits be curtailed for Illegals (including rescinding the Anchor Baby fiasco) and then SERIOUSLY going after employers with heavy fines and jail terms for intentionally hiring illegals.
With those incentives removed (as well as allowing our LEA to inquire as to one's citizenship status when encountering law breakers and then turning those who can't prove they are here illegally, for deportation) COUPLED with an increased presence on the border INCLUDING building a wall, would solve about 75% of our problem within a couple of years.
That "we can't round up 12 (who knows, it may be even 20) million and deport them" is a red herring meant to play on our emotions an lull us into a sense of throwing up our hands and say, "Okay, if we can't fight them, then we might as well give up!"
I know this is difficult for some (not singling you out) but how about we apply a little logic here.
Doesn't anyone think that for one minute that those who would like to come here are watching the developments closely?
And, if they see us capitulating because of our unwillingness to do anything because the numbers are so high, then does it not stand to reason that they will "assume" that if can just make it across the border, then they will be "home free?"
After all, if we are unwilling to consider what to do with 12 million, then why would we bother with the 12,000,001 or 14 million or 30 million?
It send the wrong signal and simply encourages one and all to do whatever they can to come here to the land of milk, honey and suckers!!!!
Cut their benefits, prosecute their employers and watch them RUN back across the borders themselves.
that we must figure out a way to say to those that if you're lawful and if you've contributed to the United States of America, there is a way for you to eventually earn citizenship," Bush said.
The country is full. It makes sense to grant citizenship to the best and the brightest of the world, not to anyone who can wander across the border and pick some spinach.
BTW, the 12 million he refers to have already broken the law, so I don't know how any could be considered lawful.
President Bush plan makes sense.
You can't kick 12 million people out of the country without serious damage to the economy, and thanks to the activist judges who would make sure that there is no such deportations.
What is feasible is a guess worker program where Business can get the labor they want legally, and also a plan for legalising the illegal immigrants provided they meet stringent conditions and standards. I also prefer that they be legalised with a worker visa and wait long before they even become eligible for citizenship.
Blah,blah, blah! Defeatist blather. You doing time in the WH? Blackbird.
"...............and give some of the country's illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship."
Amnesty.
What compelling reason can possibly be given for granting these illegals a "pathway to citizenship"?
makes sense to me....Eisenhower did it with operation wetback....let's get this program re-started!!!!!
"He's dividing his party and risking the republican congressional majority."
You are correct. Other considerations aside, this is politically tone deaf right before a hotly-contested election.
From the article: "...if your lawful..."
These people are here illegally. They are, by definition, not lawful. What is the President even talking about here?
Si, se puede!!
;>
Not when pols think of them as potential voters and consumers of government services.
It's to round them up to register them to vote and to receive those government services....
And if the employees have full identity which appears to be legit? Even those that were fraudulently produced and then purchased. Government regulations on businesses is huge. I'm glad there is finally a place for employers to "check" potential employees. I know in SF Bay Area, early-mid90s, thousands upon thousands of illegal identity was produced via "criminals" inside the DMVs. You think these criminals kept copies of the "real identities" of the people they sold those false identities to? The ring had been going on for years before being detected.
That's right and about the time many Republicans were ready to crawl over "broken glass" to get to the polls on election day to defeat the libs and the MSM. His tone deafness on this issue is a colossal understatement.
Suurender another country. Not mine.
The tune I hear Bush singing on immigration sounds like: "soy un perdedor"
They're NOT lawful. Deport them.
So...we can't round them up to send them back, but we can round them up to make them citizens and register them to vote?
Well, that makes perfect sence! /s
dissembling.
RIGHT now we have rolling amnesty. Hide for 10 years and then apply for a hardship visa. There are proof requirements. THEY HAVE AMNESTY NOW THERE IS NO REASON TO MAKE IT EASIER.
Hide for 10 years, five years with a green card then apply for citizenship. Total time about 16 years. LAW RIGHT NOW.
Amnesty whether "automatic" or a sham "not automatic" is STILL AMNESTY!!!!!
PLUS ALL THE AMNESTY RELATIVES!!
12 million is good to stay illegal because that is 12 million who are prohibited from brining their relatives. 15 people each, 30 people with new law 12 million times 30 people.
NO WAY!!! NO AMNESTY IN ANY FORM!!!!
Translation: I refuse to enforce the existing immigration laws.
Because of this ongoing refusal, and the farce that is the recently passed fence bill, which allows the administration to NOT build the 700 miles of fence if they decide not to, the Republicans DESERVE to be the minority party.
If the Dims take over in the House or Senate, or both, President Bush and the Republican leadership will only have themselves to blame. Many of us conservatives have made it plain and clear: secure the borders first or we're not voting.
I've decided to stay home on Nov 7 because of this one issue. The Republicans failed to take the appropriate action, and now it's clear that the fence bill was a sham, an attempt to fool us into thinking they had done something about this.
By continuing to pimp for the guest worker program BEFORE the border is secure, President Bush is confirming this.
NOTE: If you want to convince me to vote on 11/7, use facts, not personal attacks. Quote the fence bill itself and show me how it doesn't allow the administration the latitude to NOT build 700 miles of fence. Flames will not convince me, so don't waste your efforts if that's all you have. (Directed at ALL, not just you, AD.)
You don't just go round them up. You first secure the border so illegals cannot easily cross. You enforce laws already in place against employers. Many will leave when they can't find jobs. You cut off social service to all illegals, then more will leave. You take care of the rest as you come across them in the normal course of law enforcement. As they are encountered in the routine enforcement of other laws they can be deported. You keep repeating the above steps; it really is that simple.
With these remarks, President Bush is just doing the campaigning for Democrats that Clinton won't (or can't) do. Maybe Bush switched sides.
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