Bush delivers get-tough message on immigration
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush said Monday the United States has toughened security along its border with Mexico and it's time for Congress to approve legislation overhauling the nation's immigration laws.
At a Border Patrol station in this southwest desert city, the president campaigned for a law to help people get temporary work in the United States or clear up their illegal status with a path to citizenship.
Bush hoped to send a message -- particularly to conservative critics from his own party -- that the stepped-up border enforcement is working. His get-tough message was meant to prod Congress into passing a guest worker program for immigrants, a signature domestic policy goal.
Bush was joined by Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican, whose support is seen as critical to any deal in the Congress.
Another lawmaker vital to Bush's effort, Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, said Monday: "President Bush did the right thing today by speaking out." ...
(Well, hell, if Teddy likes it it must be good, right? (Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.)
The amnesty push is on
Michelle Malkin
While the border fence shrinks and his support among grass-roots conservatives plummets, President Bush continues to lobby for his massive illegal alien amnesty plan. The open borders lobby, of course, isn't appeased enough. They want their green cards NOW (see above).
Chris Kelly's waiting for Bush's fence photo op.
Meanwhile, it has been left to individual citizens to challenge security-undermining sanctuary laws--like those in San Jose.
Bush To Launch Immigration Campaign Today
Ed Morrissey
George Bush will start working on the one issue where he finds sympathy from the Democratic majority Congress -- immigration. The new campaign starts in Yuma, Arizona, where Bush will speak near the Mexican border about the need to both secure the frontier between Mexico and the US, as well as resolve the status of millions of illegal immigrants:
In his speech in Yuma, Bush will stress four elements that he has to see in an immigration bill: more border security; better enforcement of immigration laws in the interior, especially laws against the hiring of undocumented workers; a temporary-worker program to address labor shortages; and "resolving without amnesty and without animosity the status of the millions of illegal immigrants that are here right now," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
A recently leaked White House presentation, devised after weeks of closed-door meetings with Republican senators, suggests some hardening of Bush's positions, however.
As spelled out in the presentation, which White House aides describe as ideas for debate, undocumented workers could apply for three-year work visas, renewable indefinitely at a cost of $3,500 each time. To get a green card that would make them legal permanent residents, they would have to return to their home countries, apply for reentry at a U.S. embassy or consulate, and pay a $10,000 fine.
In a new twist, more green cards would be made available to skilled workers by limiting visas for parents, children and siblings of U.S. citizens. Temporary workers could not bring their families into the country.
Democrats may not provide as much help as Bush thinks, however. The freshman class has a strong conservative streak, as I have noted before. Many of them had to become more conservative than the Republicans they replaced on immigration, and they understand that their districts will send them packing in 2008 if they approve anything that even sounds like amnesty. ...
Bush may want to get rolling on immigration reform, but at the moment, neither the House nor the Senate have any wheels on which to ride. Until both the White House and Congress focus on border security first -- on which the Blue Dog Democrats insist, reminiscent of last year's House Republicans -- the campaign will stall in the Yuma desert.
