Thread: Bush, Fox to talk immigration

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/my ... 184025.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006
MEETING IN MEXICO
Bush, leaders to talk on immigration reform
By William Douglas
Washington Bureau

1/83/8

WASHINGTON | President Bush will meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Cancun on Thursday to discuss immigration reform, even as the Senate debates whether to give legal status to the millions of illegal immigrants who are already in the United States.

Bush and Fox are scheduled to meet in the Yucatan vacation resort as part of a trilateral summit with new Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. While Bush has serious economic issues to address with Harper, U.S.-Mexican immigration is expected to dominate the two-day meeting.

"The immigration debate is a vital debate for our country," Bush said Thursday, after a White House meeting on the issue with agricultural and faith-based leaders. "It must be done in a way that doesn't pit one group of people against another."

Given the political climate across the United States, it's doubtful that Bush will get his wish for a nondivisive debate. Many in Washington question whether any immigration legislation can pass this year. Bush is weakened by low approval ratings, and opposition to illegal immigration has become a red-hot issue in many states where lawmakers face voters in November.

Moreover, several potential 2008 presidential candidates are weighing in from opposing sides, lessening the chance for compromise.

"There's nothing that Bush can promise credibly to the Mexicans," said George Grayson, a professor who specializes in U.S.-Mexico relations at Virginia's College of William and Mary. "He's had a rough couple of months, and the Republicans sought to separate themselves from him in the Dubai Ports deal. They have a chance to do it again with immigration."

That isn't stopping Bush from promoting his plan to overhaul immigration law. He highlights his call for a guest-worker program, which would allow illegal immigrants and foreign workers to apply for temporary legal status to accept U.S. jobs. After a maximum of six years, they would be required to go back to their home countries and wouldn't be placed on track for permanent residency.

Bowing to rising resentment of illegal immigrants across the heartland, Bush also has recently emphasized tighter security along the U.S.-Mexican border and called for illegal immigrants registering for his guest-worker program to pay unspecified fines.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a potential 2008 presidential candidate, is staking out a harder stance. The Senate will begin two weeks of debate on immigration Tuesday, and Frist is sponsoring a bill that would toughen border security without offering a guest-worker program.

His proposal mirrors an enforcement-only bill that the House of Representatives passed Dec. 16. Lawmakers opposing the guest-worker plan say that giving illegal immigrants the opportunity to work and live here legally would reward bad behavior.

Meanwhile, on Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a bill by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and John McCain, R-Ariz., another likely 2008 presidential candidate, that would let illegal immigrants hold temporary work visas for up to six years after they pay $1,000 fines and pass background checks. Illegal immigrants could apply for permanent residence and eventual citizenship under the Kennedy-McCain measure.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the panel's chairman, is trying to broker a compromise that includes guest-worker and enforcement provisions.

Polls reflect America's unease with some of the proposed changes. In a Quinnipiac national survey last month, 62 percent said they oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, while only 32 percent supported the idea.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll two weeks ago found that 56 percent said the United States shouldn't grant temporary-worker status to illegal immigrants.

On Friday, thousands of people across the country protested legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants, with demonstrators in such cities as Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.

The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were largely peaceful, authorities said.

George Grayson | a professor at Virginia's College of William and Mary

These national statistics convince me that the marches are a big mistake for them. I agree with so many of you that it is going to anger more Americans. I think in general Americans don't like protests, EXCEPT if it's about something AMERICANS are fed up with.

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

These national statistics convince me that the marches are a big mistake for them. I agree with so many of you that it is going to anger more Americans. I think in general Americans don't like protests, EXCEPT if it's about something AMERICANS are fed up with.

Yeap, I've got a feeling there'll be millions asking "What the world's going on?" after watching tonight's news! They might even mad enough to help take back America.

That's EXACTLY the reaction I'm counting on. We all need to talk to everyone we can tomorrow at church, the restaurant, the grocery store, wherever and give them a chance to speak to their feelings about these protests, AND the people behind them. These once-sleeping citizens are going to get very angry if we just let them EXPERIENCE their own anger. We need voters. we need phoners. We need faxers. We need letter writers.

That great sleeping majority out there is our ONLY hope of winning this war. Let's encourage them by drawing out their feelings and asking them 'What do YOU think we should do about this?'

I have ultimate faith in their answer.

Bush shafts his own people and gets what? A trip to Cancun?

Personally, I'm getting a little tired of our elected officials getting all these boondoggle trips all over the world. Who's paying for them?

I think it would be much better if they all stayed right here in this country and stopped trying to act like they are doing anything other than flitting around to foreign palaces, resorts and visiting the poshest places in the world on US taxpayer dollars.

I don't suppose that anyone believes that when these people visit even the poorest countries in the world that they are hanging out in the slums, do we?

Bush is weakened by low approval ratings, and opposition to illegal immigration has become a red-hot issue in many states where lawmakers face voters in November.

How many people here remember that it was just about a year ago that many of us over at TOS were told that illegal immigration was no big deal, and wasn't even on the public's radar screen?

How many of the people who were saying this have disappeared into the woodwork now? There's not a pro-illegal word to he heard there now.

It's an amazing change for such a short period of time.

Hi Had Enuf,

You might recall his recent trip to India made a terrible situation worse, from that trip came the Nukes for Mangos Trade Agreement. Briefly
US sells nuclear materials and uranium to India
US promises to double the offshoring of jobs in favor of India
US promises to increase the H-1B cap to send even more of us to unemployment lines
In return, we get permission to buy mangos from India.
There is no mango shortage, by the way.

So what are we gonna give Mexico in exchange for chili peppers?
besides the long list we're already aware of (open borders, etc)?

There is no mango shortage, by the way.

I can go to several street corners or several store parking lots and buy mangoes 4/$1 out of the back of a pick up truck with Mexican license plates any day of the week where I live.

There is definitely no shortage of mangoes.

And, in all honesty, I have no quarrel with the farmers who bring those mangoes here to sell. I WILL, however, start having a problem if those people don't go home with their earnings and I DO have a problem with importing mangoes all the way from India when they are grown right in the United States out in CA. That is utter foolishness.

Had_enuf

You might recall his recent trip to India made a terrible situation worse

It proves that he can fool some of the people some of the time, but he can't fool all of the people all of the time. We could see an instant replay.