Please participate on my post on the Immigration issues. I think it's important we hear all points of view. Oh yes...you can FLAME AWAY as much as you want to! :)
on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION - and why I am CONFLICTED by the whole thing (just my thoughts)
Posted on 03/31/2006 11:01:24 AM EST by ElPatriota
This issue is so HUGE, I don't know where to start. Why am I doing this? see my profile and because I owe it to the people who agree with me here in FR and because this is just damn important to me and to the country, I believe. Excuse the English, best I could do)
My mantra on this has always been: Secure the border first then we can talk about it. Notice the statement is comprised of two parts:
[Part 1] Secure the border first
[Part 2] then we can talk about it.
The ORDER of the parts are important and so is the TIMING.
As of now, it seems as if the president decided to do PART 2 first, and then, PERHAPS... a little of PART-1. Is it any wonder so many are so pi**** off? :). Whoever advises the WH on how do these things seem to have lost the magic touch. Little missteps add up and pretty soon they all add up to a BIG perception and someone is fumbling the ball too many times.
What I wish the president had done:
If president GWB had TAKEN THE INITIATIVE all by himself a year ago or so... (without any appearance of political convenience as it may appear now, like his low poll numbers to name one) and had used the bully pulpit just as he did with the social security reform a while ago to tackle BOTH issue: Illegal Immigration and border security... I just have the feeling things would have worked out so much better.
Timing: He should have done this by the beginning of his second term. The war was under way... he was fresh of his re-election victory, had plenty of "political capital" as he calls it... THAT would have been the PERFECT TIME to have taken on this problem. After all, Illegal Immigrations is something people have been sick of for years and years! (I know, I lived in San Diego CA prior to 1996), but more importantly he could have accomplished BOTH issues had he tied them with the skill of a surgeon. He could have said then what he is saying now... He could have said something like ".... I want to SECURE the border, because we have people dying in Iraq to keep our enemy from doing us harm so it only makes sense to do it here as well... but in order to secure the border, I HAVE TO FIX THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION first ( which by the way, we need them for our economy, etc - in small print), so that we can actually CONCENTRATE on keeping the bad people out. This year I will stop the flow of illegal people crossing the border and once I have done that I will switch my attention to the illegals already here, etc, etc..."