Thread: BUSH TO PUSH FOR IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION

Bush to Push for Immigration Legislation



MERIDA, Mexico - Wednesday March 14, 2007 5:28 pm

President Bush pledged Wednesday to intensify his push for languishing immigration legislation, standing alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon who acknowledged he has relatives picking vegetables in the U.S. Calderon said the family members pay taxes in the United States and "probably handle that which you eat, the lettuce, etc." But he avoided saying whether they were there legally.

The joint news conference with Calderon was Bush's last appearance in a weeklong Latin America tour that included stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala. The trip was designed to emphasize U.S. aid for the region and counter criticism that the United States has neglected Latin America.

The president was generally warmly received throughout his travels, and streets were packed with curious onlookers. Still, there were protests at nearly every stop, and Bush was shadowed from afar by Venezuela's fiery leftist president, Hugo Chavez, who conducted his own tour of Latin America and taunted the president nearly daily.

U.S. immigration laws were a prime topic for Bush. The president said his most important ally in getting Congress to overhaul immigration rules may be a longtime nemesis of Republicans, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Once Republicans put aside differences and settle on a course, Bush said, Kennedy may be the one to lead the charge in the now-Democratic Congress because of his vast legislative experience.

"My mood is optimistic because the mood in Congress seems like it's changed," Bush said. Bush and Calderon also pledged to step up the fight against illegal drugs.

Calderon has complained U.S. immigration laws are too harsh and has criticized U.S. plans to add up to 700 miles of new fencing along the border. He said he supports efforts by Bush to ease the law. Bush wants to establish a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

"The borders should bring us together and not separate us," said Calderon. He said he and Bush discussed the possibility of opening new border crossings and checkpoints and agreed that better jobs in Mexico are the answer - not more border fencing.

"When Mexico grows, the United States benefits," Bush said.

However, Bush's problem has always been with conservatives in his own party who want tougher border restrictions and don't want a guest-worker program. In that sense, the former Texas governor's long-languishing immigration proposals are closer to those favored by Kennedy and many other Democrats than to those of his own party.

Bush called Kennedy "one of the best legislative senators there is" and noted he had worked with Kennedy in 2001 in winning bipartisan support for the No Child Left Behind education bill, one of the hallmarks of Bush's first term.

Both Bush and Calderon said they want to make it harder for terrorists and drug traffickers to cross between the two countries - but safer for ordinary travelers.

Bush said that immigration is "an issue that people use to inflame passions" and that "there are strong protectionist sentiments in the United States."

"I will work, Mr. President, to reject those protectionist sentiments," Bush said.

He has said he hopes a bill can be approved in the Senate by August, one that reaches a middle-ground. Granting amnesty to all workers now in the country "is not going to fly ... nor will kicking people out of the United States work," Bush said.

As he has throughout the trip, Bush shrugged off a question about Chavez. Asked about Chavez's influence in Mexico, Bush said his conversations with Calderon "focused on democracy and the rule of law and prosperity."

For his part, Calderon defended ties with the Venezuelan leader. "We are respectful of the heads of state of other countries, such as Venezuela," the Mexican president said.

Calderon, 44, a Harvard-educated economist and pro-business conservative, was asked about his own relatives in the United States - and whether they were there legally.

Although he did not answer the second part of the question directly, Calderon said: "Yes, I do have family in the United States, and what I can tell you is that these are people who work and respect that country. They pay their taxes to the government. ... These are people who have children, who want these children to be educated with respect for the land where they live and with respect for Mexico."

Calderon talked about his relatives last month in a speech in Zacatecas, Mexico, which like his home state of Michoacan has been a major source of illegal migrants to the United States.

"Just like you, I have cousins in California, in-laws in New Mexico, uncles in Chicago, who emigrated, who fight and live in the United States," he said. He said many of them live "a salto de mata," a Mexican phrase that translates roughly as fleeing or living precariously.

Written By TOM RAUM

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0307/405629.html



President Bush, ending his five-nation trip to Latin America, sought to overcome rising anti-American sentiment by pledging goodwill and a fairer immigration policy.

"One of the best things America can do is help people realize their dreams," Bush said Wednesday morning as he met with participants in a U.S.-Mexico educational exchange program.

Bush is directing his messages to the Mexican people and their newly elected president, Felipe Calderon.

Associated Press

Bush Seeks Better Ties in Latin America



By DEB RIECHMANN 03.14.07, 11:20 AM ET

President Bush, ending his five-nation trip to Latin America, sought to overcome rising anti-American sentiment by pledging goodwill and a fairer immigration policy.

"One of the best things America can do is help people realize their dreams," Bush said Wednesday morning as he met with participants in a U.S.-Mexico educational exchange program.

Bush is directing his messages to the Mexican people and their newly elected president, Felipe Calderon. But he's hoping his words also would be heard 1,400 miles away on Capitol Hill, where his immigration proposal has been blocked.

Bush returns to Washington on Wednesday after his second day of meetings in Mexico, where tension has been high.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Tuesday, attacking riot police with concrete blocks, metal bars and firecrackers and tearing down barricades to protest Bush's visit. In Merida, about 100 protesters marched to Bush's hotel for the second night in a row carrying Mexican flags and calling Bush a "murderer."

The president also had other problems back in Washington, where Attorney General Alberto Gonzales bore the brunt of Democratic criticism over how the Justice Department and White House handled the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Gonzales acknowledged that mistakes had been made but stood by the firings and rejected calls for his own resignation.

The president could not promise Mexico that Congress will pass his guest worker program. He could only promise to work hard to make it law.

"President Calderon holds deep convictions on the matter of migration, and so do I," Bush said Tuesday night in a toast to Calderon on the breezy verandah of a manicured hacienda where the two dined on fresh shrimp ceviche and duck.

"Our nations share a 2,000-mile border, and that should be a source of unity, not division," Bush said. "So we're working together to keep both sides of the border open to tourism and trade, and closed to criminals and drug dealers and smugglers and terrorists and gun runners."

With those words, Bush closed a warm, sunny day of meetings, hacienda hopping and sightseeing at Mayan ruins with Calderon, who heralded the meeting as a "new stage in bilateral relations."

Just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush stressed the importance of the U.S. relationship with Mexico. The war in Iraq, which Mexico did not support, and in Afghanistan shifted Bush's focus to the Middle East and Mexicans felt neglected.

The anti-American sentiment rose when Bush signed a bill to install hundreds of miles of new fencing, vehicle barriers and infrared cameras along the border. A critic of U.S. immigration policy, Calderon denounced the fence with gentle but firm rhetoric.

"We do consider, in a respectful way, that we may truly stop the migration by building a kilometer of highway in Michoacan or Zacatecas than 10 kilometers of walls in the border," said Calderon, who believes that jobs in Mexico, not barriers on the border, will stem migration.

Mexicans view the fence as an insult that has aggravated already strained relations with their powerful northern neighbor. Bush worked to allay their concerns, saying the barrier and stepped up enforcement along the border were only the first steps in a comprehensive immigration law overhaul that he hoped would include a guest worker program.

Bush's trip to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico served as a counterweight to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is leading the leftward political shift in Latin America.

Besides shoring up relations in Latin America, Bush's trip could help reach Hispanics, who make up the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. And it helps Bush, who has waning political clout, push his immigration agenda through Congress.

Mexico, which for years has been urging changes in U.S. immigration policy, plans to begin an aggressive lobbying effort to get a deal. With the clock ticking on his presidency, Bush said he hoped legislation would be completed by August.

Bush's proposed guest worker program, which Congress has not embraced, would allow Mexicans to seek temporary work visas to work in the United States.

He says his proposal would not grant automatic citizenship, but would provide a path toward that end. Some members of Bush's own party say providing a path to citizenship amounts to giving amnesty to those who have immigrated illegally.

The president says his administration is spending a lot of time trying to forge a cohesive Republican block of support on the issue in the Senate.

"If we don't have enough consensus, nothing is going to move out of the Senate," Bush said Monday in Guatemala. "And if nothing moves out of the Senate, nothing is going to happen in the House."

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/ ... 15342.html

"One of the best things America can do is help people realize their dreams," Bush said Wednesday morning as he met with participants in a U.S.-Mexico educational exchange program.

Realize their dreams in their own damn country at their own country's expense! No president has ever worked so hard to give away our country's resources--he is treasonous!

What about Americans' dreams? Who made the decision that Judy in Pocatello should be dismissed from her job and replaced, that Paul in Little Rock should have to train a replacement and then leave the building quietly, that Lakesha's degree from Columbia would not get her the job she trained for, or even an interview for it?

Bush said that immigration is "an issue that people use to inflame passions" and that "there are strong protectionist sentiments in the United States."

"I will work, Mr. President, to reject those protectionist sentiments," Bush said.

Sometimes all you can say is 'oh, wow.' That's my president saying
patriotism & concern for my fellow legal American citizens is a bad
thing.

Bush says he's optimistic for a breakthrough on immigration

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Oliver