Posted on 11/12/2010 9:24:08 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
WASHINGTON — A failure to reform the nation's immigration laws is the result of an electoral process that forces the parties to seek ideologically pure candidates, former President George W. Bush said in his new memoir.
Bush proposed comprehensive immigration reform, one that would have granted citizenship to illegal immigrants who paid fines and learned English, during his second term in office, but he was rebuffed by congressional leaders in his own Republican Party.
“The failure of immigration reform points out larger concerns about the direction of our politics,” Bush said in “Decision Points,” a 477-page autobiography out this week.
Bush said the blend of isolationism, protectionism and nativism that affected the immigration debate also led Congress to block free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
The book was released one week after the midterm elections, in which Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and won seats in the Senate.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, widely expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, has said his panel will focus on enforcement of current immigration laws.
He opposed Bush's immigration proposal when it was introduced.
Smith and other GOP leaders have sided with Arizona in its crackdown on illegal immigration, which prompted a lawsuit by the Obama administration contesting the state's enforcement of federal immigration law.
Bush said lawmakers in both parties have been impractical on the issue.
He said those tied to organized labor opposed guest worker programs needed for economic growth, and conservatives opposed citizenship and other measures that would stop human rights abuses and exploitation of illegal workers.
The former president said the Senate was a couple of votes short of passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2007, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., failed to keep lawmakers in session over the July 4 weekend and the legislation died.
In his book, Bush said one way to reduce the ideological extremes in Congress is to change the way we elect members of Congress.
He noted that in 2006, only 45 or 435 House members were seriously contested in the general election. Bush said members were more vulnerable to an attack within their own party during primary elections.
“The result is that members of Congress from both parties tend to drift toward the extremes as insurance against primary challengers,” Bush said.
Several Republican lawmakers were challenged in party primaries in 2008 by tea party candidates who backed stronger measures against illegal immigration.
If I never hear of Jorge Arbusto again it will still be way too soon.
Illegal alien amnesty, big spending, MediPill entitlement, billions of foreign welfare, weak Supreme Court nominees until shamed by conservatives into pulling them, etc., etc.
Bush, Dole, Bush, McLame.
Can’t we do better than this?
According to the Mexican president Vincente Fox at the time of 9/11 Bush was going to throw the borders wide open in preparation for an EU like NAU. But those planes hit the world trade center
and that made such a move politically impossible.
Recently bought a hardcopy of Millie’s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush for 50 cents.
Either W is a completely ignorant buffoon, or he really is an open borders globalist.
Either or......pick one.
Exactly!
Once again, GBW demonstrates why he is NOT a conservative and why his thinking processes leave much to be desired.
He is his father’s son - and probably his brother’s brother.
That’s funny, I thought it was American’s that got in the way.
Sorry Bush you sold out our country when it came to illegal immigration.
Sorry Bush you sold out our country when it came to illegal immigration.
I will bet almost none of them will answer yes and most of them will either change the topic or accuse you of racism for daring to ask such obvious questions. Try it and see!
With the minor Native American exception, can anyone tell me why we need ballots in languages other than English if only U.S. Citizens are allowed to vote and a working knowledge of English is necessary for naturalization?
I truly hope Jeb is not put forward in 2012...
No I do not miss him, nor will I ever miss him
I liked him personally, but his one world government ideology was misguided and WRONG
I’m not surprised. I remember seeing graphics of the proposed U.S.-Can-Mex currency. There is a long-existing federal plan to merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
This is not about the GOP it is about having a nation as one defines a nation..a geographic area with BORDERS
I do not give a flip about the Dems or the GOP they are simply flip sides of the power coin
Save our nation !!
This guy has no clue what legacy he handed off to this nation.
He has no idea what the policies he implemented and failed to put an end to led this nation to.
Obama tries to tell folks this was all Bush’s fault. And Bush is convinced it’s all Obama’s fault.
Carter opened the door for Reagan, and Bush opened the door for Obama.
Now Obama is poised to open the door once again. And by God, we better do better than we did in 2000.
President Bush, I wish you and your family much happiness in retirement. Please, I beg of you, go off and enjoy yourselves and leave the nation to people do know their arse from a hole in the ground.
A lot of folks are clueless that Bush bought the Crawford ranch the year before he became president, and quit living there shortly after he left the presidency.
It’s hard to think of it as anything other than a prop.
Partisan politics is the modern opiate of the masses.
Laura is still a pretyt girl even if her wiley ways are offensive.
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