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
Would be nice to see contact with the White House done with the respect due the office.
This is not your personal bash-Bush thread.
How clever - a source from the President tries to talk with the people and, lo, the people take it as a personal opportunity to thrash the President of the United States.
And just how does that solve anything? How does that get any further communication with the powers that be?
And just how does that make the source even read the whole thread.
check this out.
They will have absolutely no influence if this is going to be a thrash Bush thread.
Seems we should take the opportunity to respectively state our problems with the immigration bill.
Nobody, but nobody, is going to have the President of the United States read trash talk, insults, as that merely shows we have no class.
So high, in fact, that his betrayal of his own fellow Americans caused us to plunge from even higher heights face down on the cement.
So much was invested for little return on an issue that is virtually life and death for our culture as we know it.
I'm a lifelong Republican, an activist, a contributor, a former GOP elected official. The party was a great part of my life.
The party's over, my friend. This administration has helped bring it to a sorry end.
You White House officials and bureaucrats fully intend to push this down our throats. This "dialogue" with you on this thread is the same ploy used by liberals to distract and soothe the unwary. I trust a jungle cat more than I trust you Bush-shamnesty people and your "concensus building".
Nice try.
Leni
The prez just said “temporarily withdrawn” bill. THEY ARE DETERMINED TO RUIN INDEPENDENCE DAY! (ours, that is).
LOL - that's hilarious. You don't think that congress amends existing laws? What planet have you been on?
The democrats wouldn't do away with this law, they would just "enhance" it by increasing the family unification quotas or completely do away with the border enforcement benchmarks.
Once again - the democrats can alter this bill anyway they want when they are in total power. The only thing the passage of this law right now would do is to give them a foundation to build on.
Good Luck repealing the 14th Amendment.
Well it will not happen again if there is no ability to discuss with respect.
How ignorant do we have to appear? The President of the United States is seeking contact with the website and this just gives them a personal target - the President of the United States - to bring out the “glory” of their ability to trash Bush and proceed to make us all look like idiots.
Just a little respect for the site, for the chance to discuss with the White House and to intelligently and respectfully state our views.
How often does that chance come along?
Tony Snow’s Fox & Friends thread had over 8,000 views. I think that kicked this topic into high gear. Tony musta read that thread.
How dare you sit back and leave the borders wide open so any terrorist with a suitcase nuke can come across and reign down destruction on our country. What a slap in the face to the men and women who have died to keep us safe.
#2. What a slap in the face to all the law abiding citizens of this country. We are a nation of laws (at least we used to be). You seem to have forgotten that sir and are more than ready to reward criminal activity.
#3 What a slap in the face to all the taxpayers in this country. We sure as hell have not worked all of our life and dutifully paid our taxes so that millions of illegals can, presto-chango, become “legal” and suck off the government teat without ever contributing one dime. Meanwhile, grandpa retires after 50 years and gets the big finger from Washington as all that he’s paid in SS goes to his “new fellow Americans”.
So, Mr.President, if you really think we are going to enthusiastically get on board this train to hell, after you have slapped us in the face, I respectfully say to you, GET A CLUE!!!!
Then the Mods better lock this thread. Because, as you've noticed, people are extremely angry with this Administration's trashing of us.
If we don't support this Amnesty Travesty, we're insulted.
We've called and written, and the President continues promoting this horrible idea like our voices are inconsequential.
We get this kind of treatment from the Dem leaders!
I understand your point, and agree. But Freepers are p!$$#d off and see this as an opportunity to vent. Try to be patient with us. 8^)
Ok, you do not have to post then. Surely some other power will read your intelligent, well put comments to solve the problem.
I think they want to jot down our screen names for future reference.... Maybe this is a homeland security excercise.
Hasn’t McCain already told us the fence is not going to be built?
LOL.
Good one.
Yep... as is his cohort Kerrie Ruston (also out on the net promoting this garbage).
I want to know if this Nicholas Thompson is the same as the New America Foundation Nicholas Thompson.
(hint to Nick... we don’t WANT a New America!)
So the government is penalizing people for not doing the government’s work right when the government can’t do it right. How does an employer verify the immigration status of an employee? The govermnent doesn’t provide any way to do so, but penalizes employers for not complying with something that the government has made it impossible to do.
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