Thread: Bush plan to make illegal migrants welcome guests

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bush-p ... 69712.html

Bush plan to make illegal migrants welcome guests
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in Washington
November 30, 2005
THE United States would offer the country's estimated 13 million illegal immigrants three-year guest worker visas under a plan proposed by President George Bush.

The visas could be renewed for three years if the immigrants went back to their country of origin to apply for the extension.

In a speech in Tucson, Arizona, near the Mexico border, Mr Bush said his plan did not amount to an amnesty for illegal migrants, of whom nearly a million are estimated to enter the US from Mexico each year.

Illegal immigration was "a serious challenge, and our responsibility is clear - to protect the border", he said.

"The American people should not have to choose between being a welcoming society and a lawful society. We can have both at the same time."

Mr Bush announced his visa plan after saying his Administration would beef up border security along the 3200-kilometre border with Mexico and introduce the automatic detention of non-Mexican illegal immigrants - most of them from Central America - who in the past have been picked up, charged with immigration offences and then freed.

"When the date arrives for them to appear, 75 per cent of those released don't show up in court," he said. "This practice of catch and release has been the government's policy for decades. It is an unwise policy, and we're going to end it."

The Republican Party is divided over the issue of illegal migrants, nearly all of whom are smuggled into the country by organised rings or helped by family members and friends already in the US.

Hundreds of people die each year trying the crossing from Mexico into Arizona, many of them from the heat and lack of water in the Arizona desert.

The business wing of the Republican Party has lobbied hard for another amnesty on illegal immigrants, arguing that the US economy would suffer significant damage if there was a serious attempt to send back to Mexico millions of people who are prepared to do the jobs that American workers are not prepared to do.

The illegal immigrants form the majority of the 2 million farm workers, and a big proportion of construction labourers and service industry workers. Most are paid barely over the minimum wage. In general they receive no health care or pension benefits.

The US offered illegal migrants an amnesty in 1986 during the Reagan era, when about 3 million people applied. But this failed to stem the flow of illegal migrants. The numbers coming over the past decade have grown, alarming many Americans.

Polls have consistently shown that more than 65 per cent of Americans, most of them Republican voters, believe that illegal immigration is a top-ranking issue for them and that illegal migration is a danger to US security.

With polls showing support for Mr Bush at an all-time low, he has shifted ground on immigration since a speech he gave in January, in which he said illegal immigrants were of fundamental importance to the US economy and that these people deserved the right to try to better themselves and their families and a chance to become Americans.

The US Congress has spent much of this year battling to come up with an immigration bill that would receive majority support, but last month congressional leaders announced that the immigration debate would be adjourned until early next year.

Most conservative Republicans, especially in border states such as Arizona and Texas, are likely to reject Mr Bush's work visa proposal for illegal immigrants, which many see as a back-door amnesty.

Will Adams, a spokesman for the Colorado Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, called Mr Bush "Clintonesque", for advocating amnesty without calling it that. "It's new lipstick on an old pig," Mr Adams said.

Polls have consistently shown that more than 65 per cent of Americans, most of them Republican voters, believe that illegal immigration is a top-ranking issue for them and that illegal migration is a danger to US security.

With polls showing support for Mr Bush at an all-time low, he has shifted ground on immigration since a speech he gave in January, in which he said illegal immigrants were of fundamental importance to the US economy and that these people deserved the right to try to better themselves and their families and a chance to become Americans.

The US Congress has spent much of this year battling to come up with an immigration bill that would receive majority support, but last month congressional leaders announced that the immigration debate would be adjourned until early next year.

Most conservative Republicans, especially in border states such as Arizona and Texas, are likely to reject Mr Bush's work visa proposal for illegal immigrants, which many see as a back-door amnesty.

Will Adams, a spokesman for the Colorado Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, called Mr Bush "Clintonesque", for advocating amnesty without calling it that. "It's new lipstick on an old pig," Mr Adams said.

"It's new lipstick on an old pig," Mr Adams said

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I'd say that about sums it up.