Thread: Bush: Immigration Reform Key to Growth

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Bush: Immigration reform key to growth

By Michael Tarm
Associated Press


CHICAGO -- When President Bush spoke of immigration reform in a speech here Monday, some 3,000 members of the National Restaurant Association made for an especially attentive audience.

"Immigration reform is absolutely critical to all those people who were in that room," the association's CEO, Steven Anderson, said after Bush addressed the group's convention in Chicago. "They're all worried about the possibility of labor shortages."

In his remarks, Bush cited estimates that the booming restaurant industry — which he said is the largest employer of immigrants in the United States — will require nearly 2 million new workers over the next ten years.

That demand, he said, will outpace the growth of the domestic labor force.

"You understand why effective immigration reform must include a practical and lawful way for businesses to hire foreign workers when they can't fill those jobs with Americans," Bush told the convention attendees.

The president's comments came a week after his first unambiguous endorsement of a plan to allow millions of illegal immigrants an eventual chance at citizenship as part of a comprehensive approach to the issue.

Along with that endorsement, Bush also announced plans to deploy as many as 6,000 National Guard troops in states along the Mexican border.

The National Restaurant Association backs the president's approach and adamantly opposes some House Republicans who argue that fortifying the U.S.-Mexican border must precede any steps toward citizenship for illegal workers, Anderson said.

"You can't just focus on border security — on building fences and walls," said Anderson, who added that 1.6 million of the industry's 12.5 million workers are foreign-born. He couldn't say how many of those workers might be undocumented.

A spokesman for a Chicago-based immigration-rights group said he welcomed the support restaurateurs have shown for comprehensive immigration reform, saying they clearly understood how critical it is to their own livelihoods.

"They are not doing this because they are raving liberals but because they understand the contribution immigrants are making to the industry," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

After Bush spoke Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin criticized comments on Iraq that the president also made before the same convention audience.

But when it came to immigration questions, the Democratic leader struck a rare note of praise for the Republican president.

"The good news is that the president is on board. ... He's committed to a comprehensive immigration bill," Durbin said. "But it'll take the president's leadership to bring enough people forward (on the issue) in his own party."

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BN Cynic wrote on May 22, 2006 8:56 PM:
"Of course Durbin agrees with Bush on the immigration issue. They're both pro-amnesty and anti-American worker. I look forward to voting against Durbin in 2006."

Where's ICE when we need them?