Bush Immigration Speech Calls for Same Old Illegal Alien Amnesty and Guest Worker Program, Says the Federation for American Immigration Reform
Mon Apr 9, 4:37 PM ET
To: LABOR EDITORS


Contact: Ira Mehlman of FAIR, +1-310-821-4283


WASHINGTON, April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Repeating the same tired rhetoric about immigration that has used for more than six years, President Bush in a speech in Yuma, Arizona, again called for a middle class-killing guest worker program and an amnesty for illegal aliens. The president also touted his modest achievements in the area of immigration enforcement, a belated effort begun to gain credibility with the American public only after his desired guest worker amnesty bill evoked nationwide opposition.


In his Yuma address, President Bush reiterated his assertion that millions of new guest workers are needed to "do jobs Americans aren't doing." The president also denied that his plan top legalize millions of illegal aliens does is an amnesty, because they will be required to pay a few modest fines, learn a bit of English and wait a while before receiving citizenship.


"There was absolutely nothing new in President Bush's speech today," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "It was filled with familiar promises of future enforcement, all of which have been repeatedly broken by this and past administrations"


According to FAIR, the president's case for a massive new guest worker program and an illegal alien amnesty are based on misleading half-truths that he uses repeatedly. "When President Bush asserts that guest workers are needed to 'do jobs Americans aren't doing,' he ignores the obvious fact that Americans aren't given the opportunity to do certain jobs because they are filled by lower wage illegal aliens. From New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Greeley, Colorado, we have seen evidence that when immigration raids clear out the illegal labor force, American workers have lined up for these jobs.


"The last thing a country in which more than one-fifth of the adult population is functionally illiterate, and in which low-skill, low-wage workers are heavily subsidized, needs is a massive infusion of still more unskilled, low-wage workers. The Bush guest worker plan amounts to a death sentence for the American middle class," Stein stated.


In his speech, President Bush, yet again, offered the false choice of mass deportation or mass legalization as the only two options available for dealing with millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S. "President Bush keeps asserting that we cannot deport 12 million people, even though no one has seriously suggested that as an option. The alternative to amnesty is not just deportation, but sustained and consistent border and interior enforcement that convinced illegal aliens to leave on their own," Stein said. "Slapping illegal aliens on the wrists with a few fines and other requirements does not change the fact that what he is proposing is amnesty. They may go to the 'back of the line for citizenship,' but for illegal aliens, the back of the line would form in this country under the Bush plan, while those who played by the rules would wait at home," Stein concluded.

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