Dec 26 2006
Will Bush Make Adjustments On Illegal Immigration?
Now that the Congressional Republicans have made themselves impotent on national issues by sacrificing progress to grasp onto politically unsustainable positions, the President is going to do what it takes to get major problems addressed. And while no solution is perfect, progress is a winning strategy over holding issues hostage. The big issue for the right is going to be immigration. The Fence Only crowd are now completely out of the political equation, so the question is whether Bush stands by his long term position on immigration reform, which held the broadest support in the country, or whether he will make adjustments.
Counting on the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress, Democratic lawmakers and their Republican allies are working on measures that could place millions of illegal immigrants on a more direct path to citizenship than would a bill that the Senate passed in the spring.
The lawmakers are considering abandoning a requirement in the Senate bill that would compel several million illegal immigrants to leave the United States before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship.
The lawmakers are also considering denying financing for 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, a law championed by Republicans that passed with significant Democratic support.
Details of the bill, which would be introduced early next year, are being drafted. The lawmakers, who hope for bipartisan support, will almost certainly face pressure to compromise on the issues from some Republicans and conservative Democrats.
Still, the proposals reflect significant shifts since the November elections, as well as critical support from the Homeland Security Department.
First off, the Democrats will not want to repeat the disasterous mistake of the Republicans and not address the issue. If they try to play for time like the House Reps did they will rappidly lose any momentum they have (and they don’t have a lot given they are seen as the lesser of two evils right now). So Bush has the stronger hand. No one is going to force him into a position he disagrees with deeply. That means strengthening the borders will still be a key element of the final solution. But so will the Guest Worker program.
Say a thankful good-bye to the excessively punitive approach lauded by the far right. There are punishments in the Bush approach. People need to pay up all back taxes. That takes years to do and really constricts a family’s spending money. Then there will be the move to put immigrant jobs onto the open market under full employment and tax laws. That will further reduce the take home pay of those in those jobs as money goes from salary to taxes and benefits. The lesson of economics is a harsh one that cannot be avoided. So there will be a huge financial penalty in the guest worker program that will last for 3-5 years as people make amends for all those years working illegally. The need to ship them across the border for a day or two and force them to lose their homes, etc is not accomplishing anything. But it does make it undesirable to partake in the program. And we want people to go willingly into the program so we don’t have to spend law enforcement resources on this effort – which only takes away from anti-terrorism efforts.
In addition, the fact that immigrant workers will not be allowed to use any of their time here illegally to apply for citizenship is another well tuned penalty. I am not so worried about the immigrant who becomes a citizen 10-15 years from now as I am about the lack of security on the border and the enormous illegal population inside this country that can ccover up an Al Qaeda force of hundreds. Our national priorities do not include excessive punitive measures against migrant workers which have no effect on the wages of American workers (who are not field hands by nature) but do effect the prices we face and we can export.
I predict Bush gets his package pretty much as is and the Dems will claim they took out the punitive, right wing aspects of the program. And Bush will be the one who saves the border enhancements. And the right will not be grateful one bit, setting the stage for the 2008 repeat losses. And the general populace will see this all as a good thing.
SallyVee, I have heard Medved many times talking about immigration reform and while he says we need to re-enforce the borders, he seems to be against every measure that anybody comes up with to do just that. He is ok with allowing tens of millions of new immigrants as long as we make it easy for them to come across legally. When he is challenged by a listener to explain how this could possibly be managed because of the pitfalls of years of identity theft and fraud, and confronted with the hugh expense of healthcare, welfare and education and the income tax mess of these new poor people, he seems to think it will just work itself out. That is totally assinine.
Personally, I don’t believe the president is planning this North American Union idea, I don’t think is has ever been any part of an official policy or plan. What I’ve said and I believe is that Bush is an open borders guy. Does that mean that he intends to pull down the guard shacks and just say everyone com’n over? No, I don’t think so, but I think he wants to make the process of immigrating to the US from anywhere somewhere along the level of difficulty of registering your car. I also think that he is for blanket amnesty. I believe these things because of what HE SAYs. Not because of some moonbat crap on the internet. Listen to what comes out of his office, he is all about increasing the number of Mexicans in the country by the tens of millions in a very short period of time. That is why people can find it easy to buy into the North American Union theme.
Remember, He was FOR the original senate bill that originally allowed for over 190 million people to immigrate here in the next twenty years. I know that’s more people than are in Mexico, but when you all central and south america, china, india, etc. it is easy to see where those people would come from. Between that and the natural birthrate, you’re talking about almost doubling the population of this country in twenty years! Mostly with poor people with little or no education. Do you not see a problem with that? If that happens, along with the birth rate and the refusal to build more infrastructure and energy plants because of NIMBY’s, this country will look something like Soylent Green twenty years from now. (Am I exaggerating, maybe, slighty). We haven’t built much infrastructure in this country in the last thirty years. This year in California, the first power plant built in 37 years finally opened up. Hopefully we won’t have as many planned blackouts this summer. The average speed of traffic on the LA freeway system is about ten miles an hour. How many more people do you think we can bring in?
Medved constantly haruangs those of us who warn about run away immigration, legal or illegal, real easy when you live up in Seattle WA. The net result of what the president and some pandering pols are going to do will be a program that is not possible to execute. Here is where you can spot the lie in this whole program – THE SAME PEOPLE WHO CLAIM WE NEED THIS NEW PROGRAM BECAUSE THE INS CAN’T PROCESS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IMMIGRATION APPLICATIONS IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME PROPOSE INCREASING THAT NUMBER BY TEN TO TWENTY FOLD AND SAY,”IT CAN BE DONE!” There is not one organization or govt agency in the country that can process tens of millions of applications for anything local let alone having to work with foreign governments to process immigrants, I don’t care how simple you make it. All of the checks and balances that will be put into the bill for national security will be waived or reduced within a year, they are just window dressing to pass the bill. The end effect will be legalizing illegality. Not only will Jose be able to have ten ID’s and collect benefits on every one of them, they will all be legal.
Micheal Medved has a great show and I agree with him on a lot of things, but he has his head up his ass on this one. He still thinks islam is a religion of peace. That’s the other bone to pick that I have with him.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=18670
Enforcement, BikerKen, Retro, Ken, etc. You might like this article.
Bikerken
If you review the positions on immigration of the Weekly Standard
crowd and the bulk of the “neocons” you will find while they are hard core “right” on eliminating Israel’s enemies, they are fairly “moderate” when it comes to defending against the Mexican invasion.