Bush Immigration Reform Faces Uphill Fight

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's proposed overhaul of immigration laws faces diminishing prospects in a Congress already wary of his top domestic priority, revising Social Security, analysts said on Thursday.
Bush seemed to acknowledge the difficulties facing his plan to give temporary work permits to illegal immigrants, when he discussed the issue on Wednesday after meeting Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Addressing Fox, Bush said: "Mr. President, you've got my pledge I'll continue working on it. You don't have my pledge that Congress will act, because I'm not a member of the legislative branch."

Bush's comments amount to an admission that his reform proposals are not advancing in the Republican-controlled Congress, said Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the president's plan and calls for reduced immigration.

"I think Bush now understands there isn't much support for what he wants to do. There are very powerful Republican committee heads who are not interested in pursuing it and Bush doesn't seem willing so far to expend much political capital on it," Camarota said.

The president's plan is effectively dead for this Congress, a senior Republican Senate aide said.

"Bush can't do both immigration and Social Security reform and he has his hands full with Social Security. He's losing water on that one and he can't infuriate the grass-roots of our party on immigration in the leadup to congressional mid-term elections next year," the aide said.

Bush was personally committed to the reform but might have to wait until the final two years of his term to move forward, said the aide, who asked not to be identified.

TEMPORARY PERMITS

Under Bush's plan, illegal immigrants could obtain work permits for three years, renewable for another three years, to do jobs U.S. citizens did not want.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy are trying to draft legislation that would embody Bush's proposals. But the real problem is in the House of Representatives, where sentiment among majority Republicans seems to be increasingly anti-immigrant.

"Every conservative talk show host has latched on to this issue and is running with it, demanding that we enforce the borders and enforce the law," said Rick Oltman of Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates cutting legal immigration and clamping down on illegal migration. Continued ...
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We have NOT won. Those postcards only cost 25cents.. they have to continue. But please notice that McCain and Kennedy are in bed together. I like that like I like pet rattlesnakes. Kennedy is the guy who thought up the almost 1,000,000 man immigration policy back there in the 1970's. What those two people are dreaming up is beyond me, but if I don't read it, and have it analyzed for me, I don't want it, and probably don't want it anyway.

I think we should continue fighting amnesty. And it would seem to me that would be the very best we could do. But it may be time to add something to this mix... such as a national referendum on immigration in the coming national elections.
What say you?


Edit: Link by Mr_Magoo