Posted on 03/08/2002 1:24:33 PM PST by sarcasm
Friday, March 08, 2002 - WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo takes credit for thwarting the Bush administration's last effort to offer partial amnesty to thousands of illegal residents, but Thursday the outspoken immigration foe said he may have been outmaneuvered by the White House.
President Bush has struck a deal with the House leadership to place legislation that offers an extension of amnesty on its consent calendar before Bush heads to Mexico for a state visit next week, the Colorado Republican said. That action should ensure quick House passage of legislation that Bush has repeatedly sought from Congress. It would allow an undocumented person to receive legal standing, such as a valid green card, by filing a declaration with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It presumably also would require the person to have been in the United States by a certain date and have filed a declaration with the INS from an appropriate sponsor, such as a relative or employer, and pay a $1,000 penalty. "The terms are still up in the air," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration, a group that has been allied with Tancredo. "We've heard to the effect that the president wants something to bring down to Mexico." The initial Bush proposal, designed exclusively for Mexicans, once was high on the president's legislative wish list, but it was delayed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. However, as the president noted Wednesday in a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he now is pushing for the extension of the amnesty program known by the section of immigration law that covers it, Section 245I. The president hailed it as a way to reunite family, separated by the border. "If you believe in family values, if you understand the worth of family and the importance of family, let's get 245I out of the United States Congress and give me a chance to sign it," Bush told the chamber members. Tancredo, the head of a congressional caucus on immigration issues and proponent of halting virtually all immigration, said he had blocked a previous attempt by Bush to push an extension of the amnesty program through the House. But this time, he said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., had agreed to place the issue on the suspension, or consent, calendar, making it difficult to defeat the proposal. The Senate might be more favorable to the bill than the House, expanding the numbers of individuals who can apply, Tancredo said.
From your perspective, these people have shouldered a monumental task that is considered "beneath" the salt and the Earth types, here in America. But, what I infer by your point is not true.
I am not in construction. But I have an axe to grind about illegal aliens displacing construction workers here in California. We used to have decent construction characteristics within new housing although this observation dates over 20 years ago. Today, we have the cheapest construction allowable for new houses; all based upon non-qualified illegal aliens displacing journeymen of a decade or so ago. They originally did it, by accepting lower wages while simultaneously lowering the quality.
Little things, like not nailing the shingles down upon new roofing; not providing a solid base for modern showers and baths; irregular framing that is four degrees off center. Within a new home, you can't detect these "little" things until some time elapses as repair upon repair is required.
The truth is, illegal immigrants steal jobs away from Americans; they do it at a lower rate with vastly lower quality in general. More than that, they steal our hard earned tax dollars to supplant their incapacity to afford health care and other services, especially those provided by the government.
Huh? If they do, they are sure the hell not conservatives.
That's it? Oh I am quaking in my boots./sarcasm
There may be hope for you yet, Dane.
When you don't have the facts lie. Most of these people cleaning toilets or bussing tables(jobs Americans won't do) are probably earning more than minimum wage.
BTW..I'm an Irish girl, 30 next week, qualified journalist with over 10 years experience, and quite conservative. Do you think Dubya's gonna hand me a work permit to get into your country? No.
Your response pretty well confirms my dislike of journalists and their definitions of "conservative" (which usually means an unwillingness to rock the boat and a propensity for groupthink and political correctness, which, nowadays, means "liberal", not conservative, using the terms in their American sense). It also confirms my decision long ago not to go into journalism, or academia (a similar phenomenon of status-anxiety driven courtiers).
Nowhere in your post do you indicate whether these immigrants are legal or illegal; also on the one hand you claim that Ireland needs these qualified professional workers, and then on the other hand you claim they are either sponging off of the system or working menial jobs. Which is it? Don't blame the anti-immigration crowd because your government refuses to clean up the mess created by your immigration and social welfare laws.
Frankly, your post is one long feminine whinge about how awful things are for immigrants, and how (by implication) anyone who complains about this situation is really just a big meanie and a racist. The central thrust of your message is that immigration law should be based on what's good for the immigrants (as they define it) rather than what is good for your nation. This is a recipe for disaster, which you will be tasting of shortly.
More and more people are growing tired of the dominant elite's disdain for democracy and traditional culture, and its overweening desire to turn the world into a police state that looks like a giant version of Disney World, sans mouse ears. This kind of evasion (implying your opponent is racist) isn't going to fly in future; and Ireland is in nowhere near as bad a situation as the USA. But give it time.
Agree, I am finished with them.
We wont get fooled again.
Not this conservative, I just officially left the RepublicRAT Party when they decided to reward law breakers post 9-11
A small minority. There will always be bad apples. Most of them are hard working church going people.
Check this link it is amazingly bereft of the "chicken little" xenophobic hyperbolic rantings.
For you? Yes.
The more things change the more things stay the same. 200 years ago it was the Germans invading America, 100 years ago it was the Irish.
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