Thread: Across the U.S., Debate Over the President's Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/national/29react.html

November 29, 2005
Across the U.S., Debate Over the President's Plan
By NINA BERNSTEIN
At a 7-Eleven in Farmingville, N.Y., where security guards chase the immigrant day laborers from the parking lot, a husband and wife stopped their shopping long enough yesterday to disagree over President Bush's two-edged plan for such workers: to stop them at the Mexican border if they cross illegally, or to offer them temporary guest worker visas if they follow the rules.

"It is not a good idea, because they are just not going to go back," said Robert Roach, a heavy-equipment operator, calling the president's proposals, outlined in a speech yesterday in Tucson, a waste of taxpayers' dollars.

His wife, Karen, a nurse, was ready to give the plan a chance.

"The concept is good," Ms. Roach said. "I don't know if the current administration would know how to enforce it. But it's not a waste of taxpayers' money if it gets us to recognize the problem and find a solution."

The couple's disagreement was mirrored around the country. Some of the most vocal critics of illegal immigration called Mr. Bush's proposals for stricter enforcement measures too little, too late, while leading immigration advocates used almost the same words to dismiss them as an empty public relations gesture.

But in hotspots of local friction over the issue, others said the country might finally confront a complicated problem.

Carl Braun, an executive recruiter in San Diego and leader of the Minuteman Corps of California, whose 800 volunteer members patrol the border with Mexico, said the president was responding to demands from within the Republican Party in places like California. Mr. Bush did nothing, Mr. Braun said, until groups like his "screamed so loudly" that they were heard by the Republicans.

"The president has no choice but to act now," he said. "But this should have been done in the first place."

From opposite ends of the spectrum, Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which has supported amnesty for illegal immigrants, and Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates restricting immigration, said Mr. Bush's speech was more spin than substance.

"Instead of leading the country to bipartisan comprehensive reform," Mr. Sharry said, "he runs more of a danger of putting gasoline on the fire."

Mr. Krikorian, who opposes any temporary guest worker program, suggested that the speech would do nothing to placate the grass-roots backlash in Mr. Bush's party.

"The gimmicky nature of this is clear from the fact that they're kicking off next month as Border Security Month," he said. "It's frankly like National Pickle Week."

A more hopeful reaction came from Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where the business wing of the Republican Party embraces the guest worker approach. Ms. Jacoby called the plans for stepped-up border security and tougher deportation measures "a long, impressive, detailed list."

"He made clear," she said, "that he's going to use his voice and put what political capital he has behind the effort to achieve broader reform, including a guest worker program, including a way for the 11 million people already here to come in out of the shadows."

Ms. Jacoby also expressed some doubts. Of the proposal to require temporary workers to return home before being allowed to renew their visas, she said, "I have concerns about whether it will be workable."

In Miami, in a three-block line that snaked around federal immigration headquarters, a young woman from Argentina said she was uncertain whether Mr. Bush's plan would hold any hope for her.

"I've been here almost eight years struggling for asylum, but I'm still illegal here," said the woman, who identified herself as V. Tapias, 29, a receptionist at a sales center for a luxury condominium development.

Ms. Tapias said she had been caught by the Coast Guard on a scuba diving outing with friends. Now, like many others in the line, she was preparing to wait all night to be among the 60 let inside the building to contest deportation proceedings.

Still, the president's talk of a temporary guest worker visa for up to six years held some appeal for her.

"If they offer you six years," Ms. Tapias said, "that's just buying me time to find a husband or stay another way. I prefer to stay as an illegal here than go back and die poor."

Faiza Akhtar contributed reporting fromFarmingville, N.Y., for this article,Carolyn Marshall fromSan Diego and Andrea Zarate fromMiami.

"If they offer you six years," Ms. Tapias said, "that's just buying me time to find a husband or stay another way. I prefer to stay as an illegal here than go back and die poor."

No kidding.

I guess Bush's brain hadn't thought of that.