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
It was the Tony Snow thread bumped to the top for days on end. The spokesman needs to consider that the illegal aliens do not have 5,000 bucks, they can pay it installments, but face it. The U.S. will never see a dime of any fine money.
Further, I HOPE if the Senate goes against the will of the American people including Mel Martinez RNC chair, the HOUSE uses its authority regarding REVENUE matters to stop this amnesty plan.
Finally, I can tell ED GILLESPIE is back. I like Gillespie but there's already too much water under this bridge. The Senate has a BAD BILL. Listen to the American people and legal immigrants, not to illegal aliens, from wherever they came from! It is about TAXPAYERS, THE COSTS, CRIME, SECURITY, and AMERICAN JOBS for starters. The American people are YOUR SPECIAL INTEREST, not illegals. Remember us? We've been calling...
Read your oaths of office again, please.
The President is supposed to support his people and his country before he considers foreigners...especially invading foreigners...it’s obvious the people do not want or like being invaded. Unless the President has become a dictator (does he like the idea?), he is STILL supposed to support his people and his country above invading foreigners.
Tell the President...NO...NOOO...NO, damn it!
Abso-friggin-tively!
Thank you jdm and LucyT for the pings.
From another thread - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1848737/posts
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow defended the bill, emphasizing that the President would give it another push.
But he also told CBS’s Bob Schieffer that the White House realized that people have concerns about border security and that, “we’ve heard you.”
Though we will always think of Tony as a friend, the only answer to that is, “prove it.”
Build Duncan Hunter’s fence!!!
You have it exactly right. That is all that is needed to deal with the immigration issue. And no automatic citizenship to anyone.
Has Mr. Thompson responded to ANY of the replies sent him???
Its a conspiracy folks!
They don’t want enforcement!
None of the local laws will mean a thing when all the illegals become legal.
Linsey Graham:
“And if Congress punts and we don’t have the political will to get this done local and state government will act. There’s over 1100 local laws being proposed now that would be a hodgepodge of immigration laws that would really bring this economy to our knees.”
ROFLMAO! Gets my vote for post of the day. Also love your tagline. Gooood stuff.
Good reply. Even White House lurkers can be called lurkers, and what I hope is that they hear this proud website saying to the Congress: Do not vote for this bill. Put up fences which work (the PennTeller Bullshit show on fences showed how easy it is to overcome and undermine them in less than 10 minutes), round up the illegals (first those who commit crimes then the rest), and stop trying to “Win one for the Gipper” ‘cause even though we love George he isn’t the Gipper and never will be. Just doesn’t have it in him, sadly, and this entire immigration bill fiasco has proven that.
It is already illegal to hire an illegal immigrant. What makes us think they would enforce new more severe penalties? This is White House hogwash!
and yet where I work (for DOD), a new employee (American Citizens)cannot even access our financial systems until a background check (3+ month backlog) is completed.
Nice, but Chertoff has nearly said outright that he didn't want to put these agents on the borders chasing maids or landscapers.
So once again, the Bush administration will betray us, this time with a misdirection play on border agents.
If they cannot enforce the laws now, they won’t after the bill is passed. Many things in addition to what the bill states raise red flags - the secrecy and haste to pass it, the frenzy of supporters, the lies in promoting it, Ted Kennedy’s involvement, etc.
Nick, it's disingenuous at best and deceptive at worst to say that the people who oppose this bill are not wanting to do what's good for America.
In no WAY, SHAPE or FORM is this bill good for America. Not one iota!!!
I think that the problem that we've got here is: A failure to communicate!
My and my fellow Freepers and conservatives focus is on how this ABOMINATION affects America.
The WH and Congress seem to be focussed on how this ABOMINATION affects illegals and I dunno, our relations with Mexico?
The WH and Congress couldn't give a rip about America it appears to me.
But we're the ones who don't care about America.
It's a lie at its blackest. Something straight out of the Bill Clinton Playbook.
For fifty years I’ve denied Democrats my vote because they lied to me, because they called me a racist and a bigot, and because they thought me a fool. Need I complete this thought?
Protect and support our American workers!
No Amnesty ~ Not Now ~ Not Ever!
Build the fence, now!
Secure our borders from all foreign invaders!
I agree. Nick and Co. need to come with me on my morning buzz by McDonalds on the way in to work. I could point out a half dozen likely candidates.
The building I work in has a Social Security office on the 2nd floor. You should SEE the traffic that it receives from Hispanics, odds are a good proportion are illegal.
Yeah, we know where they are. but the govt seems to be mystified.
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