Posted on 06/14/2007 11:16:52 AM PDT by kristinn
A spokeman for the Bush administration sent an e-mail to Jim Robinson and myself confirming the authenticity of a post on Free Republic this afternoon regarding the immigration bill currently before the Senate as having been posted on behalf of the White House.
The spokesman, Nicholas Thompson, works for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Politico reported yesterday that Thompson and Kerrie Rushton, associate directors in the Office of Strategic Initiatives who work under Karl Rove, would be engaging the blogosphere on the immigration bill.
Thompson's post is on the thread titled Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill, a vanity posted by philman_36. Thompson posted at comment #53.
Thompson's e-mail to Free Republic included a brief introduction and the text of his posted comment:
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that I just posted a response to the post "Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill."
The White House appreciates the opportunity to respond on Free Republic.
Response:
I would like to point out that the Secretary is authorized to reduce or mitigate penalities against employers who in good faith are trying to comply with the law. Certainly, we understand that not all employers knowingly hire illegal immigrants; this will remain the case, especially before the bill’s new secure documentation requirements are fully phased in. We do not seek to wrongly penalize honest employers who unknowingly hire illegal immigrants, therefore we reserve the right to reduce or mitigate their penalties if the employer can show good faith compliance in following the law.
For those employers who do knowingly hire illegal immigrants, please know that we intend to penalize these employers strongly, and the Administration has already stepped up these penalties in the last couple of years. For example, a 2005 program, “Operation Rollback,” assessed $15,000,000 in civil fines to employers, an amount greater than the sum of administrative fines collected in the previous eight years and was the largest worksite enforcement penalty in US history. In the first quarter of FY07, criminal and civil forfeitures have totaled $26,700,000 for employers.
As a reminder of what’s in the bill, fines for hiring an illegal worker are $5,000 maximum per illegal worker for the first offense, $10,000 maximum per illegal worker for the second, $25,000 maximum per illegal worker for the third , and $75,000 maximum per illegal worker for the fourth. In addition, the bill increases the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of unlawful hiring twenty-five-fold, from $3,000 to $75,000, and would impose a prison term of up to six months. This represents a significant increase in fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Nicholas Thompson
White House Office of Strategic Initiatives
Hm....you have a point there.
And that’s about as “Classy” as I think you deserve to hear it!
Thanks, dixiechick! :o)
You got that right and I want them to show them they do - I can hope can’t I?
Funny....I haven't heard anything about the massive deportments that MUST have occurred once they busted the employers. forgive me for being less than impressed with the government's ability to extort more and more money from CITIZENS while they wink, nod and roll out the red carpet for illegals.
Confirmed, huh?
GOOD for you!
Now...let me guess who that just might be...lol
Mocking FReepers will get one no where, except on other emaciated forms. ;o)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1850240/posts?page=1320#1320
I’d of nuked his smarta$$ right then, but hey...this isn’t my gig...but I’ll fight to protect it!
I’ve only been up that way a few times. Hard to forget the beauty.
All in all, there wasn’t anything to be excited about in ‘96.
We surely are worked up now, though.
The ‘Rats aren’t helping themselves, either.
Their leadership is tone deaf, and quite nauseating.
This is going to be one heck of an interesting election decade...that’s what it feels like, anyway. ;o)
They’ve been dancing all over the line...it was just a matter of time before they lost self-control.
I haven’t been here through the entire thread.
But, I’ve seen more of that than I care to see.
They are “logging the forest”.
And, they aren’t even hiding it. ;o)
Did I ever say I wrote it? Do you think I would only refer people to my own posts?
If you had read my posts you would see that I commended him on a job well done and that I too remembered some of Bush’s earlier statements about a union.
It does explain the rabid need for the immigration bill - he has to get it done while he is in office to work it.
I don’t like the idea but if between a socialistic democrat run country or an America involved in a North America bloc for trade purposes - I would go with the republican plan.
But first I want to run old Jorge out on a rail (the required stab at the president of the united states).
Yeah. I don’t mind people wanting to critique other’s methods of “delivery”, heck I’ve done the same thing. But when it gets to the point of mocking someone as being a “FReeper”, well, that pretty well pulls the mask off. They’re here to disrupt and don’t want to be that which they Mock.
“I’m sure they’ll have a press release in a day or two saying how they now understand how “emotional” this issue is on blog sites, but they realize that they have made some progress in reassuring people just how dedicated President Bush is to “securing our borders.””
Yes, we are ‘emotional’ ... in the same sense that a rape or murder victim might get ‘emotional’.
I’ve missed your pings lately.
Until recently, I haven’t been able to keep up.
It was difficult to discern the importance wrt the issues.
But, your pings helped a lot, and I appreciate your diligence with them.
I thank you more than you know.
We are going as did Rome...the Barbarian hoards are amongst us, and our leadership is too ignorant to see history repeating itself.
jedward...you are out of line with him.
He’s a performance artist, and I appreciate his posts.
I hope you two can work this out.
I like both of you very much.
Well, I’m getting some zzzzz’s. Have a great nite all!
” Apparently none want to understand, none want to quit enjoying the continual tear down the White House and run George out of town rhetoric.
Maybe they enjoy those statements and feel comfortable around them. “
If you don’t mind my saying, it only got this way after George said we “don’t want to do what’s right for America”, and sent his thralls out to call us racists, bigots, etc.
I suggest it was Bush that dragged this conversation into the gutter.
Also, your earlier point that only reasoned discourse wil win the day is completely wrong. It seems to a lot of people that you have to break laws or riot in the streets to get what you want in this country.
When you can bring a good agrument, bring it. Otherwise, sorry to say, you sound like a first-year White House intern that just finished watching the training video got stuck on the “blog patrol” to defend an indefensible position.
???
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