Bush says immigrants must learn English, learn our values
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...litics_1691403
Bush To Immigrants: Learn Our Values
President Says New Arrivals Must Adopt American Values, Learn English
OMAHA, Neb., June 7, 2006
(CBS/AP) President Bush stressed the need for immigrants to adopt American values and learn English if they are to become citizens, as he paid a visit Wednesday to this heartland state where the Hispanic population is on the rise.
Mr. Bush said upon his return to Washington, he would sign an executive order creating a task force that will expand English, civics and history classes to help more foreigners assimilate into America. It will be led by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
"One aspect of making sure we have an immigration system that works, that's orderly and fair, is to actively reach out and help people assimilate into our country," Mr. Bush said. "That means to learn the values and history and language of America."
Mr. Bush spoke to one such classroom in Omaha. The president quizzed the students about American history in their native Spanish, then gave a speech trying to push his controversial immigration plan and acknowledging it's "a tough debate for America."
Mr. Bush's visit to Nebraska shows the uphill battle he faces to get an immigration bill. Nebraska is a solidly Republican state and the home state of Sen. Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat who often sides with the Republican president and is up for re-election in November.
But Nelson favors the House approach of tightening border security first and is cool to the Senate proposal that would create a guest worker program that would legally bring in new foreign workers and provides a shot at citizenship for many already here.
Nelson doubts an immigration reform compromise can be reached between the House and Senate.
"The Nebraskans I know and talk to want to secure the border first," he said.
Between 2000 and 2004, the increase in the state's Hispanic population accounted for 70 percent of the state's overall growth. The number of Hispanics grew by about 26,000 while the number of non-Hispanic whites fell by 500.
Nelson's Republican colleague in the Senate, Chuck Hagel, was an outspoken supporter of the Senate measure. Mr. Bush lauded Hagel for his leadership on the issue.
Mr. Bush says he believes the House and Senate can agree on their sharply different approaches to illegal immigration as long as lawmakers haven't become too hardened in their own stances. Negotiations to reconcile the two have yet to begin and Mr. Bush said he was looking forward to them.
"That will give us a pretty good feel for whether or not attitudes are hardened to the point nothing can get done," Mr. Bush said during a stop Tuesday in the border town of Laredo, Texas. "I don't think so."
The president's two-day trip on the issue took him to the training facility for Border Patrol agents in Artesia, N.M., to a sector headquarters near the Rio Grande River and finally to the Midwest town of Omaha.
Mr. Bush visited a Catholic Charities center in Nebraska on Wednesday, stopping in a classroom where immigrants learn U.S. civics in preparation for their citizenship test. The volunteer instructor was quizzing the eight students in English, and they rattled off answers about U.S. historical figures, the three branches of government and the Constitution.
Mr. Bush entered and greeted the students in Spanish and threw them a question they weren't prepared for — how many father-son duos have served as president? The students were stumped, so Mr. Bush explained in Spanish that his father was a president and the other team was "Juan Adams y su hijo Juan Q."
Mr. Bush also used his visit to the center to get in a jab at Venezuela's fiery anti-American President Hugo Chavez.
After meeting a woman who came to the U.S. from Venezuela 25 years ago, Mr. Bush said Chavez has done "a great disservice to the traditions and people" of his country.
Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States, but relations between Chavez, a leftist ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, and the Bush administration have sharply deteriorated.
"I'm a little worried about your country," Mr. Bush told the woman. "I'm worried about it, a little worried about it. I think it'll be OK."
But, he added: "It's going to take a while. Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13186250/
OMAHA, Neb. - New arrivals to this country must adopt American values and learn English, President Bush said Wednesday, pushing anew for his proposal to overhaul immigration rules.
To gain passage during this midterm election year, Bush must win over many in his own party who are opposed to provisions he demands besides stepped-up border enforcement. Those provisions include providing a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants and allowing additional work permits for foreigners.
The president has taken several tacks in recent weeks to bring around recalcitrant lawmakers, including repeated emphasis on his seriousness about tightening the border with more manpower and equipment and imposing stiffer penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
On Wednesday, aware that lawmakers are hearing from constituents alarmed by the added burden immigration sometimes places on police, schools and hospitals, Bush touted the importance of assimilation — immigrants’ adoption of American culture.
He chose to do so in a heartland state where the rising Hispanic population is creating frustration, and influencing political races.
‘Orderly and fair’ system
Bush visited a community center that offers English and other classes along with business startup help. He also announced he was creating a new task force to encourage such efforts around the country and an Office of Citizenship within the Department of Homeland Security to promote the responsibilities and rights of American citizens.
“One aspect of making sure we have an immigration system that works, that’s orderly and fair, is to actively reach out and help people assimilate into our country,” Bush said in a speech at a local community college. “That means to learn the values and history and language of America.”
Bush showcases Spanish skills
The president may have undermined that message somewhat while at the Juan Diego Center, as he joined in a class preparing students for their U.S. citizenship tests. Though the instructor addressed students in English, Bush mostly chose their native Spanish to greet and quiz them. When the students couldn’t answer his question — how many father-son duos have served as president — Bush explained in Spanish that there have been two, the Bushes and “Juan Adams y su hijo Juan Q.”
In Nebraska, immigrants are filling jobs at meatpacking plants and in the farm fields. Their increased presence was a factor in the May 9 Republican governor’s primary in this solidly GOP state and is expected to figure in Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson’s re-election race against Republican challenger Pete Ricketts.
Nelson opposes Bush’s ideas, which largely track with a bill recently passed in the Senate that contains a guest worker program and a shot at citizenship for illegal immigrants along with increased border security. Nelson prefers the approach adopted last year in a radically different House bill, which is generally limited to enhanced border enforcement and hard-line measures such as making all illegal immigrants felons.
Nelson said he doubts that House and Senate negotiators — who have yet to begin meeting — will be able to bridge the divide and craft compromise legislation. “The Nebraskans I know and talk to want to secure the border first,” he said.
Nelson’s Senate colleague, Republican Chuck Hagel, is an outspoken supporter of the Senate measure. At the event with Bush, he earned the president’s praise.
Consensus emerging despite ‘elbows’
With business groups who want a steady supply of cheap labor, the driving force behind a temporary worker program, Bush noted the support of Nebraska’s hospitality and agricultural industries. He also countered pessimistic sentiments like Nelson’s.
“I know you probably look at Washington and think it’s impossible to develop a consensus in Washington, D.C. It probably seems that way, doesn’t it, when you pay attention to all the sharp elbows being thrown and, you know, the people opinionating and screaming and hollering and calling each other names,” the president said. “But there is a consensus emerging on this issue.”
Bush’s Omaha visit wrapped up a two-day journey devoted to immigration. On Tuesday, Bush traveled to two border states — visiting the Border Patrol’s agent training facility in Artesia, N.M., before going to the agency’s busy sector headquarters near the Rio Grande River in Laredo, Texas.