Whoa! This article is from my upcoming birthday, but it isn't here yet, and the article says it is! ;-)
Just joking. Interesting article, however. That quote you used doesn't make him sound good at all on this issue.
Posted on 12/19/2003 11:26:43 PM PST by sixmil
Immigration: For someone who thinks of himself as a straight-shooter, President Bush sure gets mealy-mouthed when the subject turns to illegal immigration.
Take his news conference early last week. It was devoted mainly to the capture of Saddam Hussein. But one reporter asked for a clarification of his position on illegal immigration in the wake of comments the week before by Tom Ridge, head of the Homeland Security Department.
Ridge told a town hall meeting in Florida that most illegal immigrants in the U.S. are not a threat to national security and should be given "some kind of legal status."
Ridge stressed that any changes to immigration laws are up to Congress. But there was growing momentum, he said, to change the way the nation dealt with illegal immigration.
"I'm not saying make them citizens," Ridge said. "They violated our laws to get here. You don't reward that kind of conduct."
He did not elaborate.
Flash forward to Bush. "Could you clarify your policy, what it is, short of blanket amnesty?" the reporter asked.
"Well, first of all," answered Bush, "I have constantly said that we need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee. It makes sense that that policy go forward. And we're in the process of working that through now so I can make a recommendation to the Congress.
"Let me also clarify something: This administration is firmly against blanket amnesty."
Don't know about you, but we'd have preferred a follow-up question or two. Such as:
How does the Homeland Security chief determine which people who enter the U.S. illegally pose a threat to national security?
Of those who pulled off the 9-11 attack, how many were "matched up" with employers?
Who is going to pick up the tab for the education and health care of the families of those who have been matched with employers if the employers don't provide it and the families can't afford it?
What is the difference between "some kind of legal status" for those who came here illegally and "amnesty"? Aren't the two, in fact, the same thing?
And won't giving those who come here illegally big rewards — legal status, government benefits, drivers licenses, etc. — only encourage a new flood of illegals to make America their home?
We recognize the issue is politically dicey. Most illegals are Latinos, and they are seen as an important and growing voting bloc.
But if that's what's producing such vague policy pronouncements out of this administration, then it's not policy at all — it's politics. In fact, it borders on pandering.
This isn't a minor issue. There are at least 8 million illegals here. According to the National Research Council, they cost the government — federal, local and state — as much as $22 billion a year.
The last politician to pander on the immigration issue was California Gov. Gray Davis, who flip-flopped on driver's licenses for illegals in a vulgar attempt to save his job. Look where he ended up.
The country deserves more from a president who, as former governor of another border state, should know the issue cold and have noodled out a sound approach to it long ago.
Lots of obviously good points, but this quote from our President worries me. Many unilateral free traders/wide open borders types agree with the quote above, but I wonder how American wages are going to increase when the country is constanly flooded by new workers. This also leads me to another question: do conservatives now believe that high wages are a threat to the economy?
Whoa! This article is from my upcoming birthday, but it isn't here yet, and the article says it is! ;-)
Just joking. Interesting article, however. That quote you used doesn't make him sound good at all on this issue.
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As much as it perturbs people here to hear this, Bush has never been a strait shooter. He comes from a cultural background where directness is a sign of poor breeding, poor manners, and class deficiency. Such people do not ven think with directness and incisiveness. They avoid uncomfortable reality and substitute affability for analysis. I've been dealing with them all my life and can diagnose them as they walk in the door.
Unfortunately there's nothing you can do except get out the old clothespin and vote for his reelection, because Dean or Hillary sure in the hell ain't gonna protect America.
And Ridge is mushmouth
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That quote you used doesn't make him sound good at all on this issue.
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But I betcha we'd manage!
They work so cheap that they've pulled the average wage down to $15.60/hr. All those hotel maids have pulled the average household income down to $2500 higher than the rest of the country.
Looks like pretty good crumbs to me.
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I'm to the point where it makes no difference to me whether Bush creates an invasion over our borders financed by our social service system, whether he sells out Taiwan, whether he builds up red China, whether he declares it's America's obligation to share its wealth with the world, ...or whether Hillary does the same thing. The result is the same. The only difference is that people here excuse it and support it in Bush.
I want Bush sent back to Texas or Kinnebunkport or wherever these people come from. The important thing is for him and the Republicans to understand WHY he's being tossed out. That's what needs to be done if there is going to be change.
Give that man a CEE-GAR. That sentence should be blasted into every political ear in this Republic morning noon and night. BTW, I still chuckle at the slow burn G.D. must be having at the thought of A.S. TAKING "his" job away. hehehe.
The country deserves more from a president who, as former governor of another border state, should know the issue cold and have noodled out a sound approach to it long ago.
He does know the issue(s) and I believe that is the part that has everyone VERY concerned. There IS only one answer to the border. It is a obvious as the trails of destruction, garbage, vandalism, theft and violent crime being pounded out by the criminal invaders. The border must close NOW. This is way beyond any kind of "requires study" or "review of options". The S&!+ has got to stop now.
Some here will nay say and proclaim lofty theories regarding economics and how we are powerless to do anything to stop this. Total horse#hit. We as a people have hardly begun to do anything on the issue of the invasion. Even with that, there are dozens of organizations appearing which are directly fighting the invasion. Some through intelligence gathering, some through direct action.
The direct action folks are the ones exposing the government hidden agenda here. Thousands of criminal are invading the u.S. from the south EVERY DAY and the gubbermnt responds with ho-hum, we will talk about that sometime soon... Let 5 - 10 Americans DO something to try to enforce some tiny scrap of the existing law in this regard and whooo boy here come the State Police and the FEDS and the County Sheriffs and any other jerk-a$$ leo that all of a sudden is now very concerned. Not to mention the "rights defenders" that slither up from underneath the very rocks on the ground to proclaim the criminal invaders "rights have been violated" because an AMERICAN CITIZEN told them to get there law breaking butts back south of the river.
NEWS FLASH . . . Americans are getting a really short fuse on this subject. which is why we are seeing self - funded action groups popping up in opposition to the invasion. LOTS of self-funded oppisition groups.
Conclusions? Well, FORMER governor Gray Davis can testify to the FACT that any form of appeasement will be dealt with cold hard action and persistence. The current gubberment now has three courses of action open.
Close the border and root out the criminals that are here.
Do nothing and let the situation get worse because it WILL NOT get better or take care of itself or come to some economic balance or any other fairy tale.
Make concessions. Hot damn... talk about sparking off an absolute Force 10 $hitstorm! What happened to Gray Davis is merely a sugar coated Hollywood version of the political bloodbath that will occur. Once that is completed, the criminal invaders will be thrown out and the borders closed anyway, so the entire theory of letting them in is hogwash.
TLI
What does it do to defend America "over there" and lose Her here? Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for . . . .
It is my right to vote for "None of the above." I'll leave it up to my fellow citizens to select the next president. If it's Hillary or the Dean nut we'll be closer to the bottom where enough Americans may finally admit, "We've got a problem everywhere!! We've got to get it together!" (I'll be counting on patriots in the military and government to not let our Republic be given away by Dem internationalist traitors in the meantime.)
Screw the mainstream of both parties, I loathe both parties.
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