Thread: Bush Signaling Shift in Stance on Immigration

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/washi ... r=homepage

Bush Signaling Shift in Stance on Immigration
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Published: July 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 4 — On the eve of nationwide hearings that could determine the fate of his immigration bill, President Bush is signaling a new willingness to negotiate with House Republicans in an effort to revise the stalled legislation before Election Day.

Republicans both inside and outside the White House say Mr. Bush, who has long insisted on comprehensive reform, is now open to a so-called enforcement-first approach that would put new border security programs in place before creating a guest worker program or path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally.

"He thinks that this notion that you can have triggers is something we should take a close look at, and we are," said Candi Wolff, the White House director of legislative affairs, referring to the idea that guest worker and citizenship programs would be triggered when specific border security goals had been met, a process that could take two years.

The shift is significant because Mr. Bush has repeatedly said he favors legislation like the Senate's immigration bill, which establishes border security, guest worker and citizenship programs all at once. The enforcement-first approach puts Mr. Bush one step closer to the House, where Republicans are demanding an enforcement-only measure.

"The willingness to consider a phased-in situation, that's a pretty big concession from where they were at," said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, whose closeness to Mr. Bush dates to his days as a top Republican National Committee official. "It's a suggestion they are willing to negotiate."

In a sign of that willingness, the White House last week invited a leading conservative proponent of an enforcement-first bill, Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, to present his ideas to Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the Oval Office.

Ms. Wolff said the president found the Pence plan "pretty intriguing."

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Pence said the president used precisely those words in their talk. Mr. Pence said that the meeting was scheduled to last 10 or 20 minutes but went on for 40, and that the president "was quite adamant throughout the meeting to make the point that he hoped I would be encouraged."

Mr. Bush has little choice but to negotiate, although he is on delicate terrain. Some House Republicans remain deeply opposed to even a guest worker program, and any move closer to the House could upset the delicate bipartisan compromise that enabled legislation to pass the Senate.

Polls show the public is deeply troubled by the problem of illegal immigration, and Mr. Bush, who has made the issue his domestic policy initiative, is eager for a victory on Capitol Hill. But a carefully constructed White House strategy to prod the House and Senate into compromise collapsed last month when skittish House Republicans opted for field hearings instead.

The House hearings begin Wednesday in Laredo, Tex., and San Diego and will continue throughout the summer. In the Senate, Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will convene his committee on Wednesday in Philadelphia.

The meetings will undoubtedly expose the deep Republican rift just as the elections draw near, and some say they are simply a way to stave off legislation until after November. Democrats, eager to pick up Congressional seats, intend to use the hearings to drive home the idea that Republicans have failed to address illegal immigration, a tactic that could further complicate prospects for a bill before Election Day.

One major question is whether Mr. Bush would give up on a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million to 12 million people living here illegally. He has said repeatedly that it is impractical to deport those who have lived in the United States for a long time and built lives here; the Senate bill permits some longtime illegal residents to become eligible for citizenship if they learned English and paid taxes and a fine.

Many House Republicans deride such a proposal as amnesty. Mr. Pence would require illegal immigrants — even those in the United States for decades — to leave the country briefly before returning, with proper documentation, to participate in a guest worker system. Private employment agencies would set up shop overseas to process applications; after six years in a guest worker program, an immigrant could apply for citizenship.

"I believe it's amnesty if you can get right with the law by paying a fine but never have to go home," Mr. Pence said.

Whether Mr. Bush would accept that is not clear. Aides to Mr. Bush, including Karl Rove, the White House chief political strategist, and Tony Snow, the press secretary, say he remains adamant that any bill must address the status of the immigrants who are here illegally.

But one Republican close to the White House, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, predicted that Mr. Bush would ultimately abandon the idea of a path to citizenship.

Giving up, though, would doom the legislation in the Senate. Mr. Pence met last week with leading Republican senators, including Mr. Specter, John McCain of Arizona and Mel Martinez of Florida.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Specter said that proponents of the Senate bill "are determined to see comprehensive" legislation, and that "comprehensive means all parts, including the 11 million." But he also said that he was very interested in Mr. Pence's approach, and that the tenor of the meeting was that the Senate could "move toward a middle ground" with the House.

The question now is whether President Bush will be able to find that middle ground in time for the midterm elections. Mr. Cole, the Oklahoma Republican, was not optimistic.

"Our people would like to have some sort of solution," he said, "but my instinct tells me this is much more likely to be a post-November, or a 2007 kind of deal than it is to happen between now and then."

In a sign of that willingness, the White House last week invited a leading conservative proponent of an enforcement-first bill, Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, to present his ideas to Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the Oval Office.

Ms. Wolff said the president found the Pence plan "pretty intriguing."

"I believe it's amnesty if you can get right with the law by paying a fine but never have to go home," Mr. Pence said.

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But because the Senate bill cannot pass the House does not mean Bush, the ethnic lobbies and corporate America have given up.

Which brings us to the Pence plan, named for the conservative congressman from Indiana who heads the House Republican Conference and was the 2005 Man of the Year to the conservative Human Events weekly.

In "The Godfather," Don Corleone warns his son Michael that, after he dies, someone inside the family will come to Michael with an offer of peace from the Barzinis, who murdered Michael's brother. Whoever brings you the offer, Don Corleone warns his son, will have betrayed you. Tessio, lifetime friend and high-ranking captain of the Corleones, comes to Michael with Barzini's offer. A mistake.

Rep. Mike Pence appears to have accepted the Tessio role in the great immigration battle of 2006.

As Bush backs away from the Senate bill ("we don't have to choose between the extremes – there's a rational middle ground"), Pence uses identical rhetoric to describe his plan, now being hailed by Newt Gingrich, Gary Bauer, David Keene of the American Conservative Union and The American Spectator. It looks like the fix is in.

Pence calls his plan a "middle ground" proposal, a "no amnesty immigration reform" in which "securing our border is the first step."

This is fraudulent. At the heart of the Pence plan is amnesty. Illegal aliens here return to Mexico for one week with an assurance they can come back to their jobs. Down there, they visit "Ellis Island Centers" to register as "guest workers" and return with "work permits." The illegal are made legal and put on a path to citizenship.

The only difference between the Pence plan and the Kennedy-Bush amnesty is the one-week vacation employers would happily fund, as it means blanket amnesty for them as well as their illegal hires.

What makes the Pence plan insidious is that Mike Pence has an unimpeachable pedigree. What makes his plan a grave problem is that even Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Horatius at the Bridge in this battle, is speaking favorably of it.

Why is Pence proposing capitulation at the moment Americans are looking to the Republican House as their last, best hope to kill the Senate amnesty, end the "guest-worker" scam and get control of America's borders before we lose our country?

Answer: The forces in Washington pushing for an amnesty deal, by whatever name, are immense – the White House, the ethnic lobbies, the Big Media, mainstream churches, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the "conservative" front groups and foundations they finance, and corporate contributors to congressmen who fear law enforcement. Then there is a Democratic Party that voted 10-to-one in the Senate for amnesty, as it looks to legalized aliens as future voters to bury the conservative cause forever in this city.

Anyone who thinks the establishment has given up because it has lost the country does not know it. Behind closed doors, deals are even now being discussed for a "compromise" bill that will give GOP congressmen cover for selling out the cause for which they bravely voted in December.

If the House buys the Pence plan, it will be the end of Republican control of the House in November and the end of Mike Pence as a rising star of the GOP. But that will not matter. For the consequences for the country will be irremediable and infinitely worse.

I see that the OBL over at FR is 100% behind the Pence plan.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1660459/posts

That tells me all I need to know.

This is NOTHING MORE than a bait and switch....

Phased in AMNESTY, PHASED IN Guest Worker...shaking head and wondering just how stupid they think we are.

Just look at Bush's promise of 6000 National Guard on our Southern Border...it's July, and we are not even close to a 1000 troops physically on the border, and even once there, their hands are tied behind their backs.

Ms. Wolff said the president found the Pence plan "pretty intriguing."

I find it pretty damn conniving.





AlturaCt wrote:

Rep. Mike Pence appears to have accepted the Tessio role in the great immigration battle of 2006.

Excellent analogy.

creating a guest worker program or path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally.

NO!!!!!!!!!

2007 kind of deal

I don't think so. That is too dang long and too many anchor babies.

Secret meetings about immigration in the White House. Hmmm, "Ever dance with the Devil in the pale moon light"?

Dixie

new border security programs in place before creating a guest worker program or path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally.

I just don't believe anything coming out of his mouth re anything on the illegal immigration issue, other than that which allows for continued invasion.

Mr. Pence would require illegal immigrants — even those in the United States for decades — to leave the country briefly before returning, with proper documentation, to participate in a guest worker system. Private employment agencies would set up shop overseas to process applications; after six years in a guest worker program, an immigrant could apply for citizenship.

Sorry, IMO, this is amnesty in citizenship's clothing.

Ms. Wolff said the president found the Pence plan "pretty intriguing."

Isn't this the plan that gives control to the businesses?

Say It Ain’t So, Mike
The Pence immigration plan has let conservatives down.

By Congressman Steve King

Shoeless Joe Jackson was a phenomenal baseball player caught up in the Black Sox Scandal in which some team members conspired to throw the 1919 World Series. A young fan watched his hero Shoeless Joe leave the courthouse and gave us the immortal line “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” I had much the same feeling when conservative and principled Congressman Mike Pence emerged from the Heritage Foundation after his speech outlining his “rational middle ground” immigration proposal. “Say it ain’t so, Mike.” Say it ain’t so that you have played into the hands of the Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesty coalition.

I first want to be clear about one thing: Congressman Pence is a friend of mine, of whom I think so much that I have said, with deference to his committed Protestantism, that the only position for which I would not support him is pope. I believe Mike’s motives are pure. It is his policy and his timing I oppose. Our national character and destiny would be irrevocably altered by either the Senate version or the Pence proposal on immigration; its implications would be greater even than those of the War on Terror.

President Bush has aggressively promoted, without numerical limits, amnesty by any other name, and his support for the Senate bill amounts to support for a guarantee of citizenship to law breakers. Over the course of five-and-a-half years, the administration has quietly (and, I believe, intentionally) failed to enforce our existing immigration laws. An employer who willfully hired illegals was 19 times more likely to be sanctioned under Bill Clinton than George Bush. Illegal border crossings have increased under Bush, and the value of illegal drug trade across our southern border has risen to a whopping $65 billion dollars in 2005, dwarfing that of oil, Mexico’s largest legitimate industry of $28 billion, and more than tripling the $20 billion Mexicans working in the U.S. sent to their families in Mexico last year. Congress cannot force a president to enforce the law. Consequently, over the past 20 years, and especially during this administration, we have seen the flow of illegal immigration grow from a stream to a river to a flood. This deluge now threatens to sink what has become “Lifeboat America.”

In response to national outrage over illegal immigration, the House passed tough, common-sense enforcement provisions. The Senate watered down enforcement and added colossal amnesty provisions to legalize and grant a path to citizenship to more people than the grand total of all legal immigrants to the United States in all of our nation’s history. All these estimates are based upon the presumption of effective enforcement, in spite of the failure of the Bush administration to enforce our immigration laws thus far.

Many Republicans aren’t happy at all with the president’s plans, and so we had the makings of a fight. The opponents stepped up into the ring: in one corner, with a big, bright, scarlet letter “A” branded on their robes, were the amnesty mercenaries of the Senate, representing 42 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats; in the opposite corner, supported by the rule of law, were the patriotic passengers and crew of Lifeboat America, representing 88 percent of House Republicans and 18 percent of House Democrats. Then into the middle walked Congressman Pence to present his “no amnesty” (not right away, at least) “real rational middle ground” speech, in an effort to broker the peace and call off the battle royal. Pence injected into the debate the wrong kind of proposal at the worst possible time.

He teases conservatives with a “free market approach” that sets up private companies as “Ellis Island Centers” in foreign countries, where applications from aliens for temporary work cards to work legally in the U.S. can be processed. The bill requires all illegals who seek legalization to self-deport back to their home countries for papers, in an effort to avoid the strong objections to amnesty. There would be no limits (even the Bush-Kennedy-McCain Senate bill has limits) set on the number of “guest workers” during the first three years, so that the market could establish the demand for cheap labor. The open-border lobby calls it “labor market equilibrium.” The Pence plan says that “a reasonable limit...will be determined by the Department of Labor.” The plan would cede congressional constitutional authority over immigration to a presidential appointee who could expand the number of immigrants by millions. The power to transform America irrevocably would be granted to a bureaucrat to be named later by a president to be elected later. How many voting, legalized immigrants does Pence think would be too many for a President Hillary?

The Pence plan is a siren song, even more dangerous than the Senate bill, because it threatens to lure Lifeboat America onto the rocks to be sunk in the hazardous Sea of Presumption. No matter how promising the placid waters look, how enchanting the melody of enforcement sounds, or how luring the lyrics for legalizing cheap labor may seem, the result will be tens of millions of aliens pouring across our borders, both newly legalized and illegal. Without the will to deport, there exists no deterrent to stop them from coming. In fact, the Pence plan will add power to the jobs magnet, attracting more aliens.

The Pence plan has other major flaws. “Ellis Island Centers” would operate predominately in Mexico, earning a commission to process employees for American companies. Employers of illegals will offer a premium to centers to circumvent the law by legalizing their current employees without requiring them to return to their home countries. If this effort fails, employers will then require “Ellis Island Center” companies to pre-clear employees before sending them back home for a day. Free markets do not pay for bad or no results. That is why the government does background checks, not the hirelings of law breakers. The result would be chartered buses, loaded with illegal employees, making round-trips to Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana“”

It is a major flaw to presume that “Ellis Island Centers” could process background checks more efficiently than the government, for they would still have to rely on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) databases. Also, the beneficiaries of the services would be only those pre-cleared for specific employers. No one will leave America without a guarantee of a job upon return. Illegals who work here will stay here. More illegals will come on the promise of amnesty, and the 12 to 20 million in our midst will become 70 to 90 million within a generation. The Pence plan grants six years to each guest worker. If Pence is not willing to deport those here illegally now, why would he be willing to pull them out by their roots after an additional six years? This is the veil over the path to citizenship. Under the Pence “no amnesty” plan, citizenship becomes the implied reward and delayed amnesty the inevitable result.

Odysseus escaped the powerful temptation of the siren song only because his sailors, out of respect and affection for their captain, tied him to the mast. He thrashed about and called on his crew to untie him, but they refused until they had sailed past the temptation. Mike, Lifeboat America’s passengers and crew have to strap you to the mast as we chart this course through the rocky waters of the immigration debate. It’s a narrow channel, in hazardous seas, through which Lifeboat America must resist many alluring temptations. Congressman Pence, America is going to need you for a long time as a leader in the Conservative Movement. Just say it ain’t so, Mike.

— Congressman Steve King represents the Fifth District of Iowa.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Ym ... I3M2M3YzI=

Very Important to keep in mind that the Pence Plan has what equates to an almost unlimited number of "extended family" that the ILLEGALS can bring into the USA.

Rep. JD Hayworth on the Laura Ingraham show today when asked what he thought of the Pence Plan:
{paraphrasing} NOT GOOD. "WORSE THAN THE SENATE BILL." Open ended flow of ILLEGALS due to the extended family that can be brought in. Amnesty and rewarding law breakers.