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
Gosh Nicholas, are you sure? You do know Free Republic is a Conservative forum don't you? There's nothing but bigots and unpatriotic Americans who post here. LOL!
Sorry, I couldn't resist. ;o)
Well...I’ve been back up. ;o)
This illegal immigration thingy doesn’t take into account rest.
I paid attention to what you were saying. The thread is too long for me to figure out which posts you were complaining about, but it was apparent you were objecting to empty rants that didn’t spell out what their complaints were. So when I wrote my post, I edited out the parts where I rambled, ranted and flung mindless insults. It took extra time, and a degree of restraint. Thank you for your compliment of that post.
“A troll generally is a fly in person”
BTW, these days a troll can be a fly in person, a semi-n00b with a little bit of history here, or a paid poster. I’m sure I’m forgetting something, though.
I never, ever thought you to be a troll.
Oh good. Now I’m happy. But my battery is dying, so I must go. Good night FRiends.
“You may fire when you are ready Gridley.”
Commodore George Dewey, 1 May 1898, at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. The American squadron entered Manila Bay and took fire from the Spanish fleet, anchored under the guns of Cavite, for half an hour until in the position Dewey wanted. Then Dewey addressed his order to Charles Gridley, captain of Dewey’s flagship Olympia.
[Dewey, George. Autobiography of George Dewey, Admiral of the Navy. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913) 214.]
As I stated on the other thread...I now also have the added pleasure of wondering if I’m famous or infamous...
It's that simple: enforce the law and stop making excuses.
I believe in the work the Herirtage Foundation is doing on this issue. According to them each and every immigrant low-skilled worker cost the taxpayers $22,000. Get the number down to zero and we'll talk.
so they are saying there are EXISTING LAWS they can use??? (if they would only enforce them..)
Image credit goes to FReeper, Corin Stormhands.
Twin sailors protecting our Nation!
I ADORE YOU!!!
:-)
Exactly right.
Also another major reason I have for not combining enforcement with immigration is that just on the face of it, the two are a conflict of interest with each other.
Please ping me if you get an answer to your question:
“So I would like to ask Nicholas Thompson directly, if the White House will absolutely and unequivocally state that it is committed to the Constitution and the sovereignty of the US, and that it repudiates any notion of forming a superstate composed of Canada, the US and Mexico, whereby there is free movement of peoples between all three countries. Would you be willing, as a White House spokesman, to state that for the record?”
“Well, where were you when I was trying to explain that to all here in dealing with the WH?”
As predicted, you are still talking about it.
“I was told by this same person to leave.”
You see, you’re delusional and now are making things up. I did not tell you to leave. I merely pointed out that you’re uncomfortable in your environment and said there were a couple of ways you could solve that. I did this in a very reasoned and “classy” fashion.
Add to that the fact that most Employers do a background/criminal check, plus a credit check. So there are multiple levels before hiring that a fake or stolen SSN become quite obvious. The bigger the Corporation, the bigger that lie becomes. Blackbird.
LOL! We're not exactly the bottom feeders they took US for. Blackbird.
You had a very thoughtful post.
I thought you might want to ping nthompsonwhitehouse since he is the person from the Whitehouse.
I am really disappointed in Tony. My wife and I commented that it seems he has given in. He should leave this administration and go back to Fox. There, he might regain his conservatism and back bone.
We both loved watching Tony and I prayed for his recovery, but right now, watching him is painful.
What is it about Washington that turns good conservatives into spineless jellyfish? Is it some evil liberal crystal centered in the ACLU headquarters, giving off sissy mind control waves?
Nearly 195,000 aliens were removed from the United States last fiscal year, a record for ICE and more than a 13 percent increase over FY 2005. ICE removed 50,222 aliens from the United States via Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) flights to foreign countries.
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