Posted on 11/28/2005 8:20:45 PM PST by Graybeard58
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- President Bush said Monday he wants to crack down on those who enter the country illegally but also give out more visas to foreigners with jobs, a dual plan he hopes will appease the social conservatives and business leaders who are his core supporters.
"The American people should not have to choose between a welcoming society and a lawful society," Bush said from the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base about an hour from the Mexican border. "We can have both at the same time."
The touchy issue of immigration has divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he will bring up the issue early next year. The House hopes to tackle some border security measures before adjourning for the year, but little time remains and it has other issues on its plate.
Bush also pitches his plan in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday. Texas and Arizona are home to GOP senators who have been vocal on the need to change immigration laws but who aren't entirely sold on Bush's vision.
The idea for temporary worker visas has been especially divisive and is stalled in Congress. Bush said he does not support amnesty for illegal immigrants, but he does want to give workers a way to earn an honest living doing jobs that other Americans are unwilling to do and issue more green cards.
"Listen, there's a lot of opinions on this proposal," Bush said. "I understand that, but people in this debate must recognize that we will not be able to effectively enforce our immigration laws until we create a temporary worker program."
Also Monday in Phoenix, Bush sought to counter calls by some in Congress for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces. "We will stay until the job is done, not a day longer. We will get the job done in Iraq," Bush told 1,300 people at a fund-raiser that was expected to bring in $1.4 million for Republican Sen. Jon Kyl's re-election campaign.
The president also promoted his plans to make tax cuts permanent, praised his Supreme Court picks - new Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justice nominee Samuel Alito - and pitched his immigration and border security proposals.
Earlier in Tucson, Bush spoke to a supportive audience that included border patrol agents and military troops. He was flanked by two black Customs and Border Protection helicopters and giant green and yellow signs that said "Protecting America's Borders."
He said he is providing border agents with cutting-edge technology like overhead surveillance drones and infrared cameras, while at the same time constructing simple physical barriers to entry.
The president's push on border security and immigration comes a month after Bush signed a $32 billion homeland security bill for 2006 that contains large increases for border protection, including 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents.
Bush has been urging Congress to act on a guest worker program for more than a year. Under his plan, undocumented immigrants would be allowed to get three-year work visas. They could extend that for an additional three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has proposed providing illegal immigrants in the United States visas for up to six years. After that, they must either leave the United States or be in the pipeline for a green card, which indicates lawful permanent residency.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Kyl support an alternative proposal that would require illegal immigrants to return to their home country to apply for a temporary worker program.
McCain and Kyl appeared with Bush, while Kennedy issued a statement criticizing the president for talking about immigration reform without acting after nearly five years in office. And it wasn't just Democrats saying that - Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said Americans "are tired of talk and ready for action."
And, she added, "We have no business discussing guest worker programs until we can actually prevent illegal entry."
Border control, blah, blah, blah...amnesty program.
Idiot.
She "gets it"
Sometimes Dubya really dissappoints me. He continues to try to keep both sides happy, and it STILL aint workin'.
And those people who do so voluntarily should be given fast-track to get back in. The rest should be forcibly deported and charged a hefty fee/fine for their Guest Worker Visa to get back in, if they're allowed back in at all.
"...should not have to choose between a welcoming society and a lawful society," Bush said "We can have both at the same time."
Yeah right. Change the laws to make them "legal" and otherwise accomodate them. Jeb will explain it allto them in spanish during 2008. /cynicism intended and justified
"Here's My Donation!"
While immigration can and does have beneficial aspects, it seems to me that almost nobody in government understands that it can have destructive aspects as well.
Is it beneficial to have so many people from a foreign nation swarm an area, that they cannot assimilate since the community the live in has essentialy become a foreign enclave on U.S. soil?
Is it beneficial to have millions of working poor in our nation that cannot support themselves, cannot pay to educate their children, cannot pay for heathcare, cannot house feed or cloth themselves?
Is it beneficial to gourge our schools with so many children of recent immigrants, that we cannot build enough schools to house them all?
Some immigration is a great thing. What we are experiencing today is not. Stating that we need to increase the number of job related visas, and we need to increase the number of green cards that lead to citizenship, and saying that we need to provide so many legal work permits that illegal immigration is no longer necessary, raises some very serious questions.
The implaction is that we haven't seen anthing yet with regard to the flooding of this nation with foreign nationals. And if that's the case, things are going to get worse rather than better. And the destruction will be legal, sanctioned by a federal government so out of control that it can ram much more radical socialism down our throats without fear of objection from long term U.S. citizens.
Bush has been abysmal on the borders BUT...(Here me out FReepers I'm not waffling but looking at this from Bush's point of view)...
Bush is simply not the type of person who advocates rounding up illegals and returning them home en masse. That's just reality. I trust him when he says that this is not an amnesty. Those who are here illegally will have no choice but to sign up and register if they want to work in this country. As far as them staying beyond the guest-worker term, I don't know. Unfortunately, some illegals will violate the provision and stay. But IMO, most illegals will meekly leave after their term is up and get in line if they want citizenship. After all, they're already in the U.S. database and can be easily tracked.
But even the most die-hard supporter of defending the borders has to concede that there has to be some type of rigid, strict temporary guest-worker program here. Give the illegals who are currently here a biometric Federal I.D. that expires after two years, and place them in a special income tax bracket.
Yes, Bush should have responded to the border crisis immediately after 9/11. Yes, Bush's plan doesn't go far enough. But I'm willing to give him a chance and see what happens.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Or in plain English, we're going to solve the illegal immigration problem by changing what we call them to "guest worker."
Yeaaaaaaaaah suuuuuuuuure.
You've been much to long to say something that foolish.
I'll help you out.
This just in, "Clinton announces crackdown on sexual harassment."
You're right. France has proven it.
Yeah, sure, right Jorge (Rockefeller Republican) Arbusto.
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