Posted on 10/23/2007 7:49:12 AM PDT by blogsforthompson.com
Fred Thompson is set to announce today a major proposal that would take a huge bite out of the enormous illegal immigration problem in America. Fred will meet in Florida with the Collier County Sheriff, Don Hunter, and will then reportedly announce the details of his plan that would enforce our nation's borders and target cities and employers that harbor and hire illegal aliens. AP writer Brendan Farrington reports on the expected announcement:
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is choosing a county with a large farmworker population to announce an immigration policy Tuesday that will include stripping federal grant money from cities and states that don't report illegal immigrants.Thompson plans to meet with Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter before announcing details of his border security and immigration enforcement proposal.
A major part of the plan will be to reduce the number of illegal immigrants by increasing enforcement of existing law. Sanctuary cities, where city employees are not required to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities, would lose discretionary federal grants, said a campaign source who didn't want to be named because the plan hasn't been announced.
Thompson will also call for stronger laws to force employers to verify that workers aren't illegal immigrants, a more rigorous system to track who is coming in and out of the country and a plan to increase prosecution of "coyotes," smugglers who bring illegal immigrants across the Mexican border, the source said. He will also talk about border security.
Collier County has vast tomato farms that hire thousands of immigrants. Last year it was part of a two-county sweep with 163 illegal immigrants arrested in one weekend. The campaign plans to cite figures that 22 percent of the county's crime is committed by illegal immigrants and that 40 percent of county's arrest warrants are for illegal immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently trained 27 Collier sheriff's deputies to enforce immigration laws.
At a campaign stop in Georgia last week, Thompson accused rivals Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani of being soft on illegal immigration when Romney was Massachusetts' governor and Giuliani was New York's mayor.
HOWEVER, they can get rid of themselves, which will reduce numbers by a good amount. Those efforts will be the ones that work, leaving the rest for deportation or for those who are productive and prove their worth, possible citizenship after a fine and such.
It’s a multi faceted effort to get this done and if done right could actually be a winner for our side for a change. After all, with the criminals and riff Raff gone, we could end up with 3-5 million pro life catholic tax payers who have paid a fine instead of 15 million deadbeats that were protected by the Democrats sucking the life blood from the nation.
Of course locking down the border has to come in as well. Indeed it comes first or anything we do is a waste.
Recently Thompson said he won’t hold employer’s feet to the fire with penalties...now after putting his finger in the air he’s going to do it? I say Bravo!
well said!!!!
No, he said large-scale deportation is impractical, but that attrition will work. (As it is already working in a few states.)
He wants to register them, give them work permits, and provide them with an EVENTUAL path to US citizenship.
Care to back up this bulls*** with a source?
Mexicans are not that much cheaper, but vs. our deadbeats, they Do show up.
It makes this a tough issue politically, there are many players and there will have to be some deals struck to get anywhere at all.
I know he hasn’t. His strong conservative stance and the long fight against illegal immigration makes him unpopular with the elitists in the GOP.
I know the time has come we are going to have to pick a candidate to unite and support. If we split up the primary votes too much we will end up with Rooty.
This is a good place for Fred to start uniting some of the party. I wanted none of the top tier because they all seem to be open borders and amnesty.
US citizens out here are looking for someone who cares more about the average guy and they know the candidate doesn’t care if they support illegals above citizens.
Hunter is all of that, but money and exposure has been the problem.
Source?
As I understand it, you have just arrived at the nut of Fred’s plan. Advance word is that he plans to enforce existing laws on the books, not make new ones.
As for policies that accommodate business, I don’t know what he’s going to say, but if it is along the lines of, “Let’s earn our credibility as a nation of laws first and then we can examine ways of making it possible for jobs to find workers who want them, and businesses to find workers happy to have the jobs.”
If he is anywhere close to this, he’s going to win hands down, barring any Arkancide, Polonium poisoning, or something similar.
I’ve said it before. The first major candidate to make illegal immigration a major issue will win this election. Illegal immigration will be the most important issue in 2008.
No need to ship them out. Take away the incentives to be here, and they will ship themselves back home.
The tax card too.
“It’s disingenuous to appear he is doing something that has never been addressed regardless if it is concerning existing laws or new laws.”
The illegal situation obviously hasn’t been adequately addressed, by either party, because it’s still a huge problem. Fred has a plan. What in the SUBSTANCE of his proposed solution do you not like?
“The first major candidate to make illegal immigration a major issue will win this election. Illegal immigration will be the most important issue in 2008.”
Why? Because its the only issue that crosses partisan and social and economic lines with the exception of wall street and corporate america and those with the big bucks to insulate themselves from the effects of the invasion.
It's even more problematic than that. Not one of the "round 'em all up and deport them now!" crowd can put forward a workable plan to do so under the following realities:
What is more reasonable is a) better border enforcement (Thompson favors), b) eliminate benefits/incentives for illegals (Thompson favors), c) empower law enforcement to deport illegals when picked up for other crimes (Thompson favors), and d) crack down on "sanctuary cities" (Thompson favors).
Attrition tied to immediate deportation of those arrested for criminal offenses and working with those who prove a value to our economy (which will help squelch the business lobby who could kill the whole thing) will get this thing done with a minimum cost and in a reasonably rapid time frame. It will also reduce the logistical expense, the number of inevitable court challenges, and will conserve our resources for better things, letting us move on to other issues.
Sounds OK to me...my main concerns are:
A-that those who stay here realize this is America, not Mexico...and while they are welcome to embrace their culture, the US flag stays over the Mexican flag or else...and there’s no need to make multi-generational ghettos of Spanish-speakers that never assimilate or learn our language and culture. My Italian great-grandparents lived in an Italian neighborhood, sure, but their kids (my grandmother and her siblings) were as American as apple pie.
B-they need to learn English
Specifically, cut off the welfare freebies, prosecute illegal-hiring employers, and rescind the archaic "anchor baby" laws. Then just watch the exodus back to the third world.
This is really a winning issue for Fred!
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