Posted on 06/16/2007 5:19:45 PM PDT by hardback
PROVIDENCE — Immigration reform was to be George W. Bush’s legacy. It’s now clear that he won’t have a legacy to stand on.
The president’s visit to the Capitol was supposed to restart the immigration “grand bargain,” currently in a mid-air stall. As is his habit, he painted scary scenarios if things don’t go his way. (Note how he lists the dire consequences of pulling out of the mess he created in Iraq.) On immigration, he warns that “the status quo is unacceptable.”
And we can thank him for that unacceptable status quo. As America’s chief executive, it was Bush’s duty to enforce the laws against hiring illegal immigrants.
And for seven years, he did next to nothing. No, he did worse than nothing. In 2004, he publicly vowed to “match any willing worker with any willing employer,” thus ending the tradition that stressed the interests of American labor in making immigration policy. The message was heard as intended, setting off a new surge of illegal entrants.
One recalls the famous line in the movie “Touch of Evil,” when Orson Welles, a corrupt U.S. cop, asks Marlene Dietrich, a fortune-telling madam in Tijuana, to read his future. “You haven’t got any,” she says ominously. “Your future is all used up.”
The same can be said of Bush’s future as a leader on immigration reform. The president’s credibility is all used up by his conscious strategy to neglect immigration enforcement — part of a shameful drive to cheapen American labor for the advantage of business.
Bush also pulled a bait-and-switch. He always spoke of amnesty as something that would be extended to illegal aliens who’ve been here a long time and paid their back taxes. But the bill he supports gives amnesty to people who crashed the border as recently as six months ago, and it drops the part about back taxes.
So, small wonder that Americans greet Bush’s views on the immigration bill with either hostility or utter indifference. They sense that the fix is in — that illegal-alien advocates and big business have combined with lawmakers to sell them out.
And they don’t want to fall for a repeat of the 1986 grand bargain, which promised amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in return for fines against employers who hire them. The amnesty came off, while the employer sanctions were sabotaged. The original proposal called for a computerized registry against which employers would have to verify the right of all job applicants to work in the United States. It was ditched and replaced with an “honor system” that let employers accept documents that looked OK to them. Thus, a new era of counterfeiting was born.
Here’s a simple idea to build public support for an immigration compromise: Have Congress pass the part of the bill that would force employers to check all new hires’ eligibility to work in the United States with a database (and fine those who don’t). Once that’s being done to the public’s satisfaction, we can discuss what to do about the illegal immigrants living here and whether to increase the number of legal visas.
The latest round of threats has it that if Congress doesn’t pass comprehensive immigration reform right away, the issue will get lost in the upcoming presidential campaigns. Wrong. On the contrary, the American people will have the opportunity to press the candidates on what they would do about a matter that affects their wages, health care, taxes and the environment.
There are worse things than the status quo. Bush has shown time and again that he knows how to create them. Now, if he would only just go away.
n Froma Harrop is a member of the Providence (R.I.) Journal editorial board and a Creators Syndicate colum
There is more to this thing than we see on the surface. There is a reason why Bush is fighting so hard to get these people into the country and it's not only to give companies cheap labor. That reason alone would not be worth him throwing away his presidency and destroying the Republican party.
Let people think that you're nuts. I don't think that you are, and I've said before, there is some agenda attached to this that is so important that a lot of people in positions of power are perfectly willing to wreck this country as we know it to see that agenda come to fruition.
There is a reason for the pell-mell, consequences-be-damned rush to enact this thing, and there is a reason why GWB and not a few Republicans in congress are completely ignoring and dismissing their base.
And the reason has nothing to do with the good of the country.
There’s a scene in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” where Potter slips his worn sock into a book and confronts Lucius Malfoy. Presenting the book and accusing Malfoy, Malfoy rejects Potter’s accusation and hands the book to Dobbie, his servant and Malfoy turns to leave urging Dobbie follow. At that point, Harry urges Dobby open the ledger and Dobbie finds the sock. Dobbie exclaims, “Master has presented Dobbie with clothes. Dobbie is FREE!”. Realizing what’d just taken place, Malfoy says, “You cost me MY SERVANT!!”
President Bush and Grand Bargain schemers are filling their 350-plus page book of the Grand Bargain with worn, smelly socks and when the illegal alien is granted immunity from prosecution and figures out social benefits are his and his negotiating power AGAINST his employer has just expanded exponentially, businesses that have grown addicted to illegal alien cheap labor and their inability to exact fair benefits and wages will also angrily exclaim, “You cost me MY SERVANT!”
You can’t make this crap up. People in both the House and the Senate have taken cursing at each other from behind closed doors to the front lawn. Let’s encourage this. Even a Korean-style chair bash for exercise. The stock market is going up because of this stuff.
When Bush repeats the mantra, “...take the pressure off the border”, it can only mean the removal of that demarcation line. It also has within it the attempted demise of US sovereignty.
Bush swore to “faithfully execute the laws” of the United States; he did not take an oath to see they’re revised to fit his new world order. He has failed and deliberately sought to undermine the laws he swore to see executed.
For that, I’m nearer the point of supporting the call for his impeachment than I’d ever been.
El Presidente is thinking far into the future. The way things are going in 100 to 200 years this country will be a majority hispanic and they will look on him fondly for helping make that happen. They will probaly replace flag day with remember Jorge day.
It’s far worse then that. The z visa can be had with documentation as flimsy as a signed affidavit from 2 non family members. How would that be to fake? You could walk the border TODAY and get your “Z” ticket.
We do have to do something now. It’s just NOT what the Senate and the President are trying to ram down our throats.
You are right on one level but you are forgetting the bigger picture and the law of unintended consequences.
The big problem is that this legislation will open the flood gates for new immigration. The Corporations will fire the current, now legal immigrants, and hire new illegals, legally and without the need to pay or withhold any taxes for them. Once the illegals get their z visas or whatever they will be called, then the corporations will dump them. Right now the corps pay FICA and withholding on the workers because failing to do so carries a much bigger penalty than hiring the illegals. This amnesty bill will immediately cut the Corps labor cost from 35 - 50% primarily in tax reductions.
Can you honestly tell me that there isn't a corporation in the world that wouldn't like to reduce their labor cost by 35%? Heck they would even be willing to pay their illegals more, just to stay illegal so that they don't have to pay taxes.
Every farmer I know loves this bill. Don't delude yourself. This bill tries to benefit everyone except us.
Some of the statements just reminded me of this passage I have on my homepage.
The point people should be asking is: Why does Bush want this bill so badly? Why do other members of Congress want it so badly. And why the pressure to run it through without public debate?
Painful to read, even more painful since it’s true. Only consolation is that Kerry would have been far, far worse.
The bird seems to have been a “killdeer”:
http://www.savethedoves.org/gwbush.html
No word on whether Dubya ripped head off. Perhaps confused with Ozzie Osborne’s antics at an Ozfest
“Only consolation is that Kerry would have been far, far worse.”
I don’t think Kerry would have gone against polls so much, as to take on this immigration mess.
A scarey thought for those of us with loved-ones in harm's way. And the way it's looking, Bush has lost interest in supporting our military -- not sure why. Is he just preoccupied with his amnesty legacy for his big business family and friends?
Your thoughts aren't lost on those who are now fighting in the war. My American flag flies for them.
Goldman Sachs
Lehman Brothers
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
JP Morgan
Citibank
UBS AG
Deutsche Bank
Citibank
Credit Suisse
The IMF
The World Bank
The Federal Reserve
The International Bank of Settlements
The Bank of England
and so many more....
All such entities are mere clerks? Clerks to who? You think the people that control the BODs of all these entities have no influence on Bush?
The people that control the world's banks, especially the central banks and the central bank of the central banks are referred to as international bankers.
To think that such people are mere clerks requires a heavy dose of ignorance.
And the influence is not just confined to pushing world government.
Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs now Secretary of the US Treasury is aligned with Gore on Global Warming and also backs and is an active member of the radical environmental group known as the Nature Conservancy.
You think Paulson had no influence on Bush's about face on carbon emissions or the Law of the Sea Treaty? And you think Paulson who was installed as CEO of the World's leading investment banker has no influence on Bush in setting up markets for trading carbon credits?
The link I gave you before was not filled with kooks or conspiracy theorists but knowledgeable people ranging from Professors of Law to members of Congress. I suggest you view it before spouting off. Here is the link again:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
HEAR HEAR!!
Great post!
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