Posted on 05/29/2007 10:15:03 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
GLYNCO, Ga. (AP) - President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.”
“The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place,” Bush said against a backdrop of a huge American flag.
He described his proposal—which has been agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators—as one that “makes it more likely we can enforce our border—and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America.”
Bush spoke at the nation’s largest training center for law enforcement.
He chose the get-tough setting as conservative critics blast a Senate proposal as being soft on people who break the law. Hoping to blunt that message, Bush emphasized that any new options for immigrants and foreign workers would not start until tougher security is in place.
The presidential stop came during a congressional recess, with senators back home and facing pressure from the left and right on the immigration plan. Bush’s aim is to build momentum for the legislation, perhaps his best chance for a signature victory in his second term. The Senate expects to resume debate on it next week.
“A lot of Americans are skeptical about immigration reform, primarily because they don’t think the government can fix the problems,” Bush said.
“And my answer to the skeptics is: give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect. Give us a chance to fix this problem. Don’t try to kill this bill before it gets moving,” Bush told students and instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
Bush repeatedly cast the matter as one of political courage.
“Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don’t like,” the president said. “If you want to kill the bill, if you don’t want to do what’s right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it.
“You can use it to frighten people,” Bush said. “Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all.”
The bill would give temporary legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants, provided they came forward, paid a fine and underwent criminal background checks. To apply for a green card, they would have to pay another fine, learn English, return to their home country and wait in line.
The plan also would create a guest worker program. It would allow foreign laborers to come to the U.S. for temporary stints, yet with no guarantee they can eventually gain citizenship.
Both the new visa plan and the temporary worker program are contingent on other steps coming first. Those include fencing and barriers along the Mexico border, the hiring of more Border Patrol agents and the completion of an identification system to verify employees’ legal status.
The legislation would also reshape future immigration decisions. A new point system would prioritize skills and education over family in deciding who can immigrate.
Georgia’s senators both played leading roles in producing Bush’s deal with the Senate. Yet they have also said they may not support the final bill, depending upon how it is amended.
Bush chastised those who say the proposal offers amnesty to illegal immigrants. He called it empty political rhetoric.
We do NOT want Immigration Reform...
We WANT Immigration Enforcement!!!
Do it with what you have right now...The government does not need anything more than more people to enforce what we have on the books now, and do it right now, not tomorrow, right now...
You will not have to deport everyone who is in the country illegally, even though that is the goal...Get with the program, start doing more right now...Not tomorrow, right now...
A few hundred here and there is chicken feed compared to what you can do right now...
No one who is in this country legally, and is a citizen is going have a real problem with this...And those who do are only protesting because they condoned uncle Jorge to break the laws and stay here illegally...Po pityful them...
Do it the right way and you will find no greater friend than us...Do it the wrong way and suffer the scorn...But if you come back in the right way, again, you will find no greater friend than us...
Enough is enough...
This latest tack by the leadership in this country is extremely disturbing...To say the least...
I didn’t get what I thought I would get when voting for Bush. He’s terrible. Can I have my vote back?
What really p!sses me off is he criticizes us for doing what he praises illegals for.
To keep it as simple as possible that is:
PURSUING OUR ECONOMIC SELF-INTEREST.
It is NOT in our best interest to guarantee that our children won’t have access to yard work in HS and summer construction jobs when they reach college age. Or for us as taxpayers to pay for all the services illegals will demand and be instantly granted.
GWB is either as dense as accused or he thinks we are.
Meanwhile, Ramos and Compean rot in jail. Perfect.
Romney ought to announce that they will be released and exonerated within minutes of his swearing in.
Didn’t you hear? It is the fault of the beaten wives for not standing behind their men in 2006 - if the Republicans didn’t lose both houses of Congress, everything would be peaches and roses and ponies and rainbows. Pay no attention to the previous 5 years of Republican control of all levels of federal government. Yessir.
I think most of these points are clear and to the point.
The fact is George Bush took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States. That includes U.S. Statute Law - even those with which he disagreed personally.
Instead, he has ignored those laws and actively conspired with a foreign government to violate those laws. He and his administration have persecuted government agents attempting to enforce those laws. He has calumnized and attacked Americans who have made an effort to get those laws enforced. And now he is again actively conspiring - with the leftist Democrats in Congress and leftwing elements in his own party as well as employers reliant on slave labor, to frustrate the vast majority of voting Americans by pushing through an unworkable law which creates de facto amnesty, fails to adequately protect our borders, and results in a de facto slave labor system based on foreign nationals who will have neither the desire nor ability to assimialte and become American citizens.
He should have been impeached by our own party for vioalting his oaths of office with respect to the Mexican border.
Shame on President Bush for these disgraceful comments.
Up until now I have stood with President Bush, through thick and thin. Now he is starting to really piss me off.
“uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America”
That’s what most of Americans want you to do..giving AMNESTY to 25,000,000 illegal aliens is not upholding immigration tradition...
“give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect”
You had a chance...build the 854 miles of double wall/fence that is required by the law passed in 2006..treast the American citizen tax-paying “people with decency and respect” It’s also quite decent and respectable to act decent towards your fellow Americans and respect the law and deport the 25,000,000 plus illegal aliens.......
“Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don’t like”
I dont have to look far..There is nothing good about this AMNESTY Bill for illegal aliens..It’s all bad, every narrow slice...I dont like any part of it...
“If you want to kill the bill, if you don’t want to do what’s right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it”
If I didnt want to do what’s right for America, I wouldnt be objecting to this AMNESTY Bill for illegal Aliens..Since I want what’s right and in the best interests of America, I dont want this AMNESTY Bill, not one little aspect of it..
“You can use it to frighten people”
You are using this AMNESTY Bill to frighten the American citizen tax-payers who have to pay for the 25,000,000 illegal aliens.....
“Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all”
Yes I’ll show leadership....I have the courage to stick up for the American citizen tax-payers and deport all of the 25,000,000 plus illegal aliens....that decision takes guts...Any coward can just let 25,00,000 plus illegal aliens run amuck in our country...
Further, I would let the MILLIONS OF REAL immigrants that are already qualified to enter the country right away.. I’m told we are short of workers...
Exactly. Also, this bill punishes legal immigrants and rewards illegal ones. Reward something if you want to see more of it.
Well, isn't that wishy-washy. What "form of this proprosal" are you talking about. Doesn't changing the some form of it make it a new proprosal?
>>The President of the United States, some members of his own political party, and a substantial number of the opposing political party are, or are planning to, tell the people who elected them to office, and pay their salaries, to go to hell.<<
And GWB fouled the image of the US Flag by standing in front of us to insult us. I have been very tempered in saying what I really think of this man. It is not good.
Excellent point.
NO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LEFT BEHIND ACT OF 2007
Wait, who’s going to pay for the ones that keep coming? Two trillion will only take care of the 20 million we already have and won’t come close to covering their breed-like-rabbits offspring. <:-O
True enough. But they're not merely anticipating it, they're encouraging it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
Operation Wetback (1954)
The operation began in California and Arizona and coordinated 1,075 Border Patrol agents along with state and local police agencies to mount an aggressive crackdown, going as far as police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods and random stops and ID checks of “Mexican-looking” people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics. Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Around 488,000 people fled the country for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000-700,000 illegals had left Texas voluntarily. To discourage re-entry, buses and trains took many illegals deep within Mexico before being set free. Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (900 kilometers) south.
Result
Operation Wetback deported approximately 80,000 Mexican nationals in the space of almost a year, although local INS officials claimed that an additional 500,000-700,000 had fled to Mexico before the campaign began. The INS estimates rested on the claim that most undocumented people, fearing apprehension by the government, had voluntarily repatriated themselves before and during the operation
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