Thread: Bush's guest worker plan sees little support

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Bush's guest worker plan sees little support

09:23 PM CST on Sunday, November 27, 2005
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News


WASHINGTON – Little more than a year ago, President Bush sketched his vision for a sweeping plan that would bring millions of illegal immigrants out of the shadows, matching "willing worker" with "willing employer."

But in a year roiled by war, hurricanes, congressional leadership difficulties and his own protracted swoon in the polls, Mr. Bush has seen little traction on Capitol Hill for swift passage of his proposal to provide temporary work visas to many of the estimated 11 million to 12 million immigrants here illegally.

If anything, the current momentum appears to be favoring those in Congress who prefer a get-tough approach.

These days, it seems as if just about everyone in Congress is offering legislation to crack down on illegal immigration and beef up security along the Southwest border.

There are bills to build a multibillion-dollar fence along the entire 1,952-mile U.S.-Mexico border; bills to end birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to illegal immigrants; bills to bulk up the border with thousands of new Border Patrol agents and use of the military; and bills to increase sanctions for employers who hire undocumented workers.

"I've never seen anything like this. It's just one bill after another," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for Numbers USA, an immigration-control group lobbying against relaxation of U.S. immigration law.

The enforcement message apparently has been heard within the Bush administration, where officials now are accenting the border security component of the president's immigration plan. It's a message Mr. Bush will deliver today as he begins a two-day swing through the Southwest border states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

The topic is of keen importance to Texas, home to an estimated 1.4 million illegal immigrants and second only to California, according to a Pew Hispanic Center study last summer. The study pegged the total undocumented population at 10.3 million as of March 2004.

Mr. Bush's temporary worker plan has proved contentious on Capitol Hill, particularly for Republicans. Many GOP lawmakers believe that a guest worker program is good for employers and would bring order to a broken immigration system. But others have united in a forceful caucus that is stressing the need for border security and enforcement of existing immigration laws instead of rewarding lawbreakers.


Security vote first?

House leaders have promised a vote on immigration enforcement and border security measures next month. They've said any consideration of a temporary worker program would occur separately next year. That strategy is at odds with the Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has pledged action on a comprehensive border security and immigration package early next year.

Dividing the enforcement and a temporary worker program in the House has immigrant-rights advocates concerned that Congress may not deal with immigration in a comprehensive fashion.

"There is a pile of bills that are enforcement-focused but that ultimately aren't going to solve the problem," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum. The group contends that illegal immigration will be dealt with and national security improved only if the federal government permits an orderly, legal flow of foreign workers to fill unmet job needs. "Ultimately, all they are going to do is exacerbate the status quo."

Some groups advocating a more liberalized immigration system fear the House will adopt border security measures and jettison debate over a guest worker plan. But others remain hopeful.

"That's definitely a fear," said Sandy Boyd, chairwoman of Compete America, a business coalition pressing for expanded legal immigration. "But ... the reality in the House is that for House members, doing border security first is important in order to get to the rest of it."

The fact that 2006 is an election year further complicates consideration of an issue that's always fraught with controversy and complex policy choices. With Mr. Bush's popularity ratings sagging and their own political futures on the line, congressional Republicans have been more willing of late to assert their own direction.


Those already here

The thorniest issue is the question of what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already living here.

While practically all acknowledge the impossibility of deporting millions of people, there is a vast gulf among policymakers over whether to grant illegal workers a path to permanent legal residence at the end of their guest worker stint or make them return to their home country. Permanent residence would be tantamount to amnesty and spur new illegal immigration, critics say. But opponents of the work-and-return policy contend that the plan is unworkable and would be ignored by immigrants.

The White House has yet to come down forcefully on one side or the other, though Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told the Senate Judiciary Committee recently that the administration opposes "automatic" legal residence at the end of a guest worker program.

Political perils and complexities aside, advocates across the immigration divide contend the time is ripe for action, with the public energized on the issue in ways unseen in years. The question, they all agree, is which way will Congress tip: Toward a freer immigration system, or one with greater enforcement and restrictions?

"There's a lot of fuss and sound and fury. But there's not much direction," said Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors reduced immigration rates. "And it's not at all clear where things are going. It's very possible that out of this will emerge an enforcement-only bill or some big increase in legal immigration and some pretty weak enforcement provisions."

Ms. Kelley of the National Immigration Forum agreed that the picture remains very fluid.

"It's all tea-leaf and crystal-ball gazing," she said.

He should "give up" on this. The American people have made their decision. It's his job to carry it out. Nobody ever said being president would be easy. So, do your job, Mister President, or resign so that a "willing" worker can do it.

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The President's insane, illegal, and immoral immigration/border initiative does more than flood the nation with a massive race-to-the-bottom of the wage scale underground illegal alien labor force, it undermines the entire foundation of our form of government by deliberately violating our own laws and ignoring the rule of law; the only thing that keeps this republic intact.

By setting up double, triple, hypocritical, illegal, and opposing standards of conduct and legality, the President and his like-minded associates, have thrown this society into utter chaos during wartime and with terrorists beating down our doors using this stupid, mindless, and corrupt dismissal of law and logic as a weapon with which to attack and destroy us.

If the chief law enforcement officer of the United States cannot and will not enforce the damned laws of this nation, and in fact actively assists in their violation and evasion, he should be impeached and removed from office as a traitor to both his oath of office and a threat to the safety, stability, and security of the American people he has sworn to protect.

We have already suffered a felon in the White House in the previous administration with devastating consequences yet to be fully realized. We should not and cannot countenance another one who seeks to implode American society by erasing its borders and dismantling the laws that underpin it.

For his violation of oath of office and his active assistance in breaking federal immigration laws and deliberately exposing the American people to massive and unnecessary threats, President Bush should be impeached and removed from office. It is he who betrayed us and our trust, not the other way around.

Well said Captain, well said.

The Congess is about to get their wakeup call. Our goal is to push back any temporary worker considerations into 2006.

By then, most members will have opposition. They will take a new interest in discovering where the public is at on this issue.

The fire will be raging by then and there will be no stopping this tide.

The President needs to change course and do his job or be forced to do so or removed.

The Congress needs to assert itself as the highest power on behalf of the American public.

The American public must assert istelf with the Congress and ASAP.

W