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Like It or Not, Bush Leads January 8, 2004 Listen to Rush...(…discuss the substance and politics of the immigration disagreement) BEGIN TRANSCRIPT 12:10 PM ET RUSH: What's still on everybody's mind out there is this immigration business. And we've got some audio sound bites on this and some stories. I want to start out though with a little ditty, if you will, how should I phrase this? I guess I could call it leadership. And I do to want contrast some things going on here, President Bush with recent Democratic presidents, or a recent Democrat president, in the current...

<p>The debate over President Bush's new immigration reform has so far been mainly about election-year politics. But what we believe most commends it is that it recognizes the world as it exists.</p> <p>Like it or not, the U.S. is part of an integrating regional and world economy in which the movement of people across borders is inevitable. Despite nearly 20 years of efforts to "crack down on the borders," the immigrants keep coming--an estimated eight million without legal U.S. documents today. As long as the per capita income differential between the U.S. (nearly $32,000) and Mexico ($3,679) continues to be so wide, we can't stop immigrants short of means that will violate our traditions, our conscience, and our national interest.</p>

The Bush proposal Linda Chavez January 8, 2004 President Bush announced a sweeping new immigration reform proposal this week that could become a hot-button issue in the November election. For months, insiders have hinted that the president would propose a new guest worker program aimed at allowing more foreign workers into the country on a temporary basis. Widely favored by the American business community, a guest worker program would allow employers to fill jobs in industries that routinely experience shortages of workers willing to do the often difficult, dangerous jobs Americans shun -- at least at wages that allow employers...

Yesterday, President Bush proposed a far-reaching, innovative and compassionate revision of American immigration policy. It instantly drew predictable howls from those who fear the economic and social costs of immigration, and inadvertently comic howls from Democrats and moans of disappointment from liberal Hispanics who reacted with barely concealed rage at the prospect of Bush making profound inroads into the 2004 Latino vote. The specifics and their efficacy (or lack thereof) will be debated over the coming weeks by policymakers and advocates on both sides of the issue. But there's no question that, by planting his flag firmly in the pro-immigration...

Bush to Propose Broad Amnesty Tell Congress to Say No! We regret having to interrupt your holiday season with bad news on the immigration reform front, but the Washington Post reports this morning that President Bush and Karl Rove-in order to appeal to Hispanic voters-are poised to announce a sweeping amnesty plan during the second week of January. If you like amnesty, mass legal immigration, and the continued unprecedented decline in the American economic standard of living, you'll love President Bush's proposal. While the details of the plan remain unclear, President Bush is expected to propose an outline modeled after...