Bush's Immigration Speech

Thoughts? Comments? Wailings?

He hit on all the hot buttons – that was definitely a well polled speech. And I say that because I thought it was a significant departure from his previous position - in the right direction. If the Republicans follow his lead, it will be good for them in November – if both sides follow his lead, it will be a large step in the right direction for the country.

Then they can move on and address our rather stupid current criteria for legal immigration…

I thought he nade a good presentation and case for the temporary worker program.

Politics as usual.

We need term limits for Congress so that the right thing for the people – the American people – can be done.

This proposal is “amnesty” dressed up in a not so fancy costume. It allows people who have broken our laws to benefit from their law-breaking.

Give me a break…

Bush is dead wrong on this issue once again!

[quote]steveo5801 wrote:
Politics as usual.

We need term limits for Congress so that the right thing for the people – the American people – can be done.

This proposal is “amnesty” dressed up in a not so fancy costume. It allows people who have broken our laws to benefit from their law-breaking.

Give me a break…

Bush is dead wrong on this issue once again!
[/quote]

We have term limits. Every 2 years we can have a new House, every 6 years we can have a new Senate. We choose not to use them.

While it bothers me to reward people for breaking the law, I could live with amnesty if we SEALED the border. Locked down airtight. That way we wouldn’t soon have 12 million more illegals here looking for Amnesty.

[quote]doogie wrote:
While it bothers me to reward people for breaking the law, I could live with amnesty if we SEALED the border. Locked down airtight. That way we wouldn’t soon have 12 million more illegals here looking for Amnesty.[/quote]

Bingo

What he says sounds decent, but I don’t know what he plans to do.

I don’t really think guest programs are the way to go- giving these people an identity as Americans would be beneficial, I think, and would help them take this country more seriously as a “homeland”. I think we’ve seen what happens in France when people move to a country to work, but never feel like part of the culture- alienation among a large segment of the population is a bad thing.

I like his amnesty program, but I’m not sure about his plan to cut the border off with troops. I understand that we’re kind of at a loss here for what to do, and it’s certainly better than that ridiculous idea of building the great wall of Mexico, but I think, as the Governator said, those troops may be needed in other places in times of natural disasters.

I did like how Bush said that rounding up these people and deporting them would be a terrible thing to do…I like his stand on this issue that they should be legalized.

I consider his plans to put National Guard troops on the border as a way to appease the Mexican government and those that support the Minute Men. The way that I understand it, the troops do not have any authority to arrest. This makes me wonder what will be accomplished. I am also concerned about the penalties that he wants to impose on those that are here illegally. How do they intend to figure out who owes back taxes and how much?

Me Solomon Grundy

Anyone wanna place bets on when the first Mexican kid gets accidentally shot by one of the National Guard?

Anyone actually care if some Mexican kid gets shot by the national guard?

No?

Anyone think it will actually happen, considering they can’t even arrest anyone?

No?

Alright, back on topic, then…

you mean kind of like the border patrol agents that get “accidentally” shot by people crossing our border.

Nice work there.

I think the presidents plan has problems in that it is estimated that it will result in 100 million new citizens in the next 20 years. Thats obscene.

I do think that he hit on some key points that need to be address.

  1. document safety with biometrics
  2. border security
  3. Penalties for employeers to cut off the job magnet
  4. English language requirements

after all those are met within the next few years we can talk about sending those currently here to the back of the line.

[quote]Solomon Grundy wrote:
I consider his plans to put National Guard troops on the border as a way to appease the Mexican government and those that support the Minute Men. The way that I understand it, the troops do not have any authority to arrest. This makes me wonder what will be accomplished. I am also concerned about the penalties that he wants to impose on those that are here illegally. How do they intend to figure out who owes back taxes and how much?

Me Solomon Grundy
[/quote]

They would be used as backup infrastructure (i.e. like using radar, watch towers, support staff etc) to allow more of the actual border patrol agents to get out and patrol

It was lame. I want them gone and only people who played by the rules get in. We don’t need troops or border patrol. If we stop giving them jobs, free medical care, and other legal benifits such as a driver’s license, they’ll leave. Not one single shot will be fired. The owners of the business who hire them should be fined or shut down. No work, no mexicans. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

These people would not be digging tunnels, climbing razorwire fences, and hiding in freezer boxcars if WE DID NOT PAY THEM TO DO SO.

Companies break the law and hire illegals. If they obeyed the law there would be no illegal immigration issue. It is so simple and blatantly obvious, yet no one in Washington has the balls (or more likely bankable capital) to risk standing up and pointing out the big ass pink elephant standing in the room.

[quote]grew7 wrote:
Anyone actually care if some Mexican kid gets shot by the national guard?

No?

[/quote]

Just like I don’t care if some Florida kid gets shot by the national guard?

Or is that an outrage?

I like Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson’s “five Mexican generals” plan because of it’s simplicity.

Divide the border into 5 zones, assigning one Mexican General the duty to gaurd each zone. Put $10,000,000 into accounts for each of the Generals. Each time we catch an illegal alien from Mexico crossing the border, we deduct $25,000 from that Generals account. That’s a maximum of 400 aliens getting across before that General’s money is gone.

At the end of the year, turn the remaining money over to the Generals–it’s their’s to keep.

Total cost: $50,000,000/year. Dirt cheap.

This is too little too late.

Bush is putting the National Guard on the border while giving amnesty to border jumpers that are already here under the guise of a guest worker program.

We lose, yet again.

The US government should have built a wall on the southern border years ago. In the long term it would have saved the American tax payer money.

Then and only then would it have made sense to allow foreigners to come here to work and/or gain their citizenship legally. In this manner, the government can track who is coming and going.

As a side note (Boston Barrister alleded to this), is it not a kick in the pants to be a foreigner who is trying to gain citizenship legally to see Bush give pseudo-amnesty to law breakers?

Dustin

[quote]steveo5801 wrote:
Politics as usual.

We need term limits for Congress so that the right thing for the people – the American people – can be done.

This proposal is “amnesty” dressed up in a not so fancy costume. It allows people who have broken our laws to benefit from their law-breaking.

Give me a break…

Bush is dead wrong on this issue once again!
[/quote]

Although I do not agree with his approach, I do not believe it to be politics as usual. I believe politics as usual would be to do nothing but talk about it.

[quote]harris447 wrote:
Anyone wanna place bets on when the first Mexican kid gets accidentally shot by one of the National Guard?[/quote]

A Marine already shot an illegal a little while back.

It is going to happen. That should not stop us from securing the border.

The solution for the Mexican parents is to not allow their kids to cross the border illegally.

[quote]doogie wrote:
steveo5801 wrote:
Politics as usual.

We need term limits for Congress so that the right thing for the people – the American people – can be done.

This proposal is “amnesty” dressed up in a not so fancy costume. It allows people who have broken our laws to benefit from their law-breaking.

Give me a break…

Bush is dead wrong on this issue once again!

We have term limits. Every 2 years we can have a new House, every 6 years we can have a new Senate. We choose not to use them.

While it bothers me to reward people for breaking the law, I could live with amnesty if we SEALED the border. Locked down airtight. That way we wouldn’t soon have 12 million more illegals here looking for Amnesty.[/quote]

Wow – we actually agree on something!

Yes we must seal the border and then deal with the issues. The speech and the plan is totally WRONG!