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MILWAUKEE -- President Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico exchanged ideas Monday on how to stop violence and improve security along the two countries' mutual border, the White House said. Press secretary Scott McClellan said that Bush telephoned Fox while traveling here to give a speech and said the pair "talked about working together" to improve conditions that have been a source of friction between the two countries. McClellan told reporters that Bush has designated Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to talk to his counterpart in Mexico about the problem and said that Bush and Fox also talked about...

WASHINGTON --Majority Leader Bill Frist told a group of key lawmakers involved in immigration legislation the Senate will take up the issue on March 27, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday. "That's when the fireworks begin on the floor," Cornyn said. Cornyn was among the handful of Republican senators who met in Frist's office for the strategy session. Also at the meeting were Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl and Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee chairman. Cornyn is optimistic the Senate...

Two years ago, Border Patrol agents began to voice what many believed were legitimate concerns about "armed incursions" into the United States from Mexico-based assailants. Now these invasions occur routinely putting federal agents' and law enforcement officers' lives in jeopardy. They reported that heavily armed Mexican army units and federal police, called federales, had infiltrated US territory and fired upon them, in some cases because –- federal agents would later discover –- Mexican drug lords had put prices on the heads of American law-enforcement agents strung out along the border. Where was the outrage by our political leaders and the...

If an immigration reform bill moving through Congress becomes law, nonprofit organizations that help day laborers find work without making sure each client has a legal right to work in the U.S. could be subject to criminal prosecution, jail sentences and fines of up to $50,000. Two North County nonprofit organizations that provide such services to at least some illegal immigrants said Monday that passage of such a law could also lead to increased abuse of illegal immigrants, who would be deprived of the protections they provide their clients by screening and tracking those who hire workers. In phone interviews...

Bush says guest workers could not stay By Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published January 24, 2006 President Bush yesterday said illegal aliens who take part in his guest-worker program would not be allowed to stay permanently. "I do not believe that any guest-worker program ought to contain amnesty because I believe that, if you granted amnesty to people here working now, that would cause another 8 million people or so to come here," he said in response to a question from the audience at a speech at Kansas State University. Mr. Bush said illegal aliens could join the guest-worker...

Guest worker plan: Horns lock on immigration By Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer The Republican National Committee closed ranks in favor of the president's guest-worker plan on Friday, solidifying the party's support for an immigration proposal that has stoked contentious debate since it was first introduced. Randy Pullen, an RNC member who opposes the plan, had attempted to force a vote on the issue. Pullen later withdrew his resolution, and the committee voted for a resolution that opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants. The tempest over the resolution -- a nonbinding action that would have no impact on border security legislation pending...

The woman at the podium was angry about U.S. immigration policy. She loudly criticized President Bush, Senate Republicans and business interests, telling a Tucson audience they were working against the kind of solution that most Americans want. "We're going to hold Republicans responsible," she said as the crowd of more than 100 responded with loud applause. Democrats? Immigration rights advocates? Far from it. This was a meeting of Republicans. Few issues divide the GOP like illegal immigration, as this gathering at a Downtown hotel on Friday morning showed. On one side are conservatives like Bay Buchanan, the woman who fired...

The Republican National Committee voted yesterday to back President Bush's call for a guest-worker program. Meeting a few blocks from the White House at the Capital Hilton, the umbrella organization of the Republican Party adopted a resolution that calls for continued legal immigration, criticizes illegal immigration and endorses a new work program for foreign workers. However, the resolution states there should be "no amnesty for those persons presently in the United States illegally." "The question is not 'Is there an issue?' -- the question is 'How you deal with it?' and I think we have to deal with it in...

A U.S. coalition of business, labor unions and religious groups launched a campaign on Thursday to defeat a bill backed by Republicans that would turn some 11 million illegal immigrants into felons. [NOTE: I believe that was downgraded to a misdemeanor.] The coalition of 24 organizations, many of which rarely agree on politics or economics, denounced the bill passed by the House of Representatives last month [HR 4437] and called on the Senate to enact legislation to include a guest worker program and a path for illegal aliens to gain legal status. ... "We are extremely disappointed with the proposal...

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have until Saturday to apply under a 1986 program that may never be repeated. Almost 20 years have passed since Congress approved an amnesty for nearly 3 million immigrants living illegally in the United States, but for perhaps as many as 100,000 undocumented residents, the door is still open. It closes Saturday. With the final deadline approaching, lawyers are reaching out to those immigrants who may still be eligible for green cards under the 1986 amnesty program.

Amnesty/Guest-Worker is Immoral by Phyllis Schlafly, Dec. 14, 2005 President George W. Bush, Senators John McCain, Edward Kennedy, and several others are promoting legislation to grant some kind of amnesty/guest-worker status to millions of illegal aliens residing in the United States, as well as to an indefinite number of additional foreign workers. All these bills should be rejected because they are immoral. Inviting foreigners to come to America as guest workers is equivalent to sending the message: You people are only fit to do menial jobs that Americans think they are too good to do. We will let you...

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged Tuesday to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it. Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government has taken out ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. It also is hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image and to counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration. Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced the U.S. measures, passed Friday by the House of Representatives,...

In her December 13, 2005 article, nationally syndicated columnist Phyllis Schlafly issues a blanket indictment of “guest worker” and “amnesty” programs being proposed in Washington, bluntly characterizing them as “immoral.” In closing, she quotes Theodore Roosevelt, who when president likened such policy to slavery. Hardly excessive, Schlafly’s contention is inarguably supported by history and fact. If anything, she did not fully elaborate on the dire consequences of any “guest worker” program that the Washington crowd may consider. Recently, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced an ostensible policy that elated those Americans who have been increasingly concerned about the invasion of...

Employers may have to get Uncle Sam's permission to hire future workers. That's the effect of a new requirement in the House's immigration reform bill. Two years after enactment, employers would have to submit the Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires to the federal government, which would compare these numbers to government databases. The government would then notify the employer whether the individual is eligible to work. The provision is aimed at ending the widespread use of phony Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants looking for work in the United States. Employers currently are required to...

The last-minute addition of language that expresses congressional support for a guest worker program into the immigration bill headed for the House floor Thursday has a group of Republican members up in arms. For months, House GOP leaders have said they plan to go to the floor with an immigration bill that deals with border security and doesn't include the kind of temporary guest worker program that many Senate Republicans and the White House have been calling for. But early Wednesday, House staffers learned that a one-paragraph section discussing the need for foreign workers to help the U.S. economy was...

President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and several others are promoting new laws that would grant amnesty or guest-worker status to millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States and to an indefinite number of foreign workers. All these bills should be rejected on moral grounds. Inviting foreigners to come to America as guest workers is like saying: You people are only fit to work the menial jobs that Americans think they are too good to work. We will let you come into the United States for a few years to work low-paid...

(CNSNews.com) - Illegal aliens who work under borrowed, stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers could collect retirement benefits based on their illegal earnings as the result of a Bush administration plan. Critics charge the federal government has grossly underestimated the cost of the proposal, which they believe could run be billions of dollars per year. Congress is expected to vote on some combination of proposed changes to immigration laws as early as next week, according to sources working with the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees. While members have not been able to reach agreement on the details of a...

GOP FORMS STRATEGY TO OK GUEST WORKERS: In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it with a House bill, observers say. By Anne C. Mulkern Denver Post Staff Writer DenverPost.com Washington - Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House. Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let the Senate pass...

While most people asked say immigration is good for the United States, a Gallup Poll indicates displeasure with President Bush's handling of the issue.

Employment enforcement must occur before reform efforts The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it “boob bait for bubba” — tough-sounding rhetoric designed to placate conservative voters. Moynihan applied the phrase to Bill Clinton’s 1992 pledge to “end welfare as we know it,” which it later became clear that he had no intention of following through on when he became president, although eventually, Republicans pressured him into it. President Bush is offering his own “boob bait” in the form of speechifying at the border about a crackdown on illegal immigration. It’s not that Bush doesn’t intend to hire more border...