Thread: Bush's SHORT tour of the Border

This is part of a transcript from the November 29th Lou Dobbs Show:

The president today traveled to the U.S.-Mexican border near El Paso, Texas, as part of his brief two-day focus on border security issues. President Bush spent only a couple of minutes touring the border. The president did not even get out of his car once during the entire tour.

President Bush is being criticized for continuing to support a guest worker program for illegal aliens that many call an amnesty program. Once again, President Bush defended his program.

BUSH: One of the ways to make sure we have a rational border control policy is to make work legal. Not amnesty, but work legal on a temporary basis. People ought to be given a (INAUDIBLE) proof work card, come here and do jobs Americans won't do, and then after a set period of time go home.

This is from another segment of Lou Dobbs' show:

DOBBS: President Bush today wrapped up his brief two-day focus on border security with a trip to the U.S.-Mexican border near El Paso. During this tour, President Bush had an opportunity to make real substantive progress on our nation's border emergency.

By continuing, however, to push for a guest worker program that is fiercely opposed by conservative Republicans and most Americans, in point of fact, if surveys are accurate, President Bush may have made the goal of securing our broken borders even more difficult. Casey Wian reports.

BUSH: I spent a lot of quality time in this part of the world when I was the governor.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That may be true, but this time President Bush spent just a few minutes touring the border. He only saw a four-mile stretch of the Border Patrol's 266- mile El Paso Sector. And during the tour, the president didn't even get out of his car.

ROBERT BOATWRIGHT, EL PASO BORDER PATROL: He was able to see some diverse infrastructure and technology in place, areas that have been resourced, as opposed to areas that have not been completely resourced. Urban environment versus a little bit of a rural environment.

He was able to see what the benefits of infrastructure and technology can do for us.

WIAN: What he also saw was one of the small sections of the border where the United States has effective border security. He skipped the vast desert stretches where alien and drug smugglers fight for control with the Border Patrol every day.

When he spoke to reporters after the tour, he continued to promise a crackdown.

BUSH: Step one of a border control strategy is increase the resources so the people standing behind me are able to do their job.

Step two, is when we catch somebody, don't release them. Capture and release has been a long-standing policy of the federal government and we're going to change that.

WIAN: But the president has not backed off his public support for a guest-worker program, raising suspicions that his new found desire for strict border security is purely political. He did make time for political fund raisers Monday night in Phoenix.

BUSH: Jon Kyl understands clearly that the role of the federal government is to enforce the border.

WIAN: And in Denver Tuesday afternoon. During his border visit, the president emphasized the additional resources his administration has committed to the border. But a key member of his administration, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted failure at home when speaking about Iraq's borders.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The borders can't be protected. We can't protect our own border!

(END VIDEOTAPE) WIAN: That candid admission is not likely to help the president in his efforts to convince the American public that he's serious about border security, Lou?

DOBBS: Well, it was a moment of candor from the defense secretary, talking unfortunately about what is nothing less than a crisis in terms of our border security and illegal immigration. What has been the response?

WIAN: It certain was.

DOBBS: What has been the response, Casey? Have you had an opportunity to talk with our border patrol agents who have the very tough job of trying to carry out their responsibilities against an administration that has no political will to either defend the border or to create a rational humane immigration policy?

WIAN: The border patrol agents we've been able to speak to in the past couple of days have been supportive of the fact that the president is making this a national issue, is coming and visiting the border.

What a lot of people have remarked on, though, is the fact that the president spoke extensively, several times about border security, said absolutely nothing new, yet Secretary Rumsfeld was able to sum up the situation in about seven worlds, Lou.

And, here is Vicente's response to Bush's "PLAN":

Well, the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, was quick to respond to President Bush's comments about stronger border security. President Fox says the way to solve the illegal alien crisis in his judgment, is with agreements, not with heightened security. And President Fox says Mexico should have a say in how many of its citizens work in the United States.

VICENTE FOX, PRESIDENT, MEXICO: They do continue enormously to the U.S. economy, to U.S. competitiveness, and what we need to do is to define and agree upon how many, in which way, for what sectors of the economy, should Mexicans be working in United States

Hi Bootsie! Yeah, I watched both segments of Lou Dobbs about the president's visit to the border. What a joke! I think he needs to be taken to the areas where the illegals are destroying property and running drugs. I don't think Mr. Bush is really interested in securing our borders, seems he just wants to calm the situation down a little. His little "speech" about border security did NOTHING to make me think he means business. I'll have to see ALOT of ACTION before I will believe that he is serious.

Hi, rebellady! You MUST read the News Story I posted about HOW he toured the border. You'll LOVE it! He toured our border in his LIMOUSINE!!! Now, can you just picture that???

It's a TAMPER-proof work card, to plug in the inaudible word. I saw that part of the speech.

However, I thought they already had THAT as of January 2003. The Mexican people stirred up such a stink over that you'd have thought someone asked them to cut their thumb off or something. I have to admit that there was no time wasted implementing that program but it was more to take care of "them" than us, believe me. AS of 1/2003, if they didn't have the card, they couldn't cross the bridge until they got it. They gave them an entire year to get their act together.

Prior to the implementation of that program, we wonderful taxpayers were paying for the Mexican college students coming across to attend our schools to stay in hotels because they were being detained at the border when customs actually started stopping cars instead of waving them on through! They were late for school, you know.

And we did this--paid their tuition and for hotel rooms-- even though most of the people in this city can't afford to send their own kids to college because of the piss-poor wage scale thanks to the thousands of illegal immigrants! You probably heard me cussing on the North Carolina coast when that news was broadcast!

And not to defend the President but he DID get out of the car for at least long enough to make his speech. KFOX was told he "walked on the border near the bridge of the Americas." Apparently that was BS, which doesn't surprise me.

It would have taken him probably 20 minutes to get from where his plane landed to the bridge, and 20 minutes to get back, even with all the traffic stopped. I'm guessing it took his entourage at least ten minutes after each leg of the journey to get organized and I don't know know long it took him to stumble through his speech because I never saw it in it's entirety, only read it.

I believe it was about ten after ten when he got back on his plane so that would have put him in town for an hour and fifteen minutes, depending upon when his plane actually landed. It was scheduled in at 8:55 AM.

It would have had to be a VERY SHORT STROLL!!! He might as well have stayed home. This is the kind of thing that he CONTINUES to do that RILES me and I HOPE the rest of the American people. This is an extremely serious issue and the man just CANNOT see that his photo ops are not the answer. WE DEMAND ANSWERS and WE DEMAND ACTION.

Oh! He also gave some local guy an award of some sort for his volunteer work. I don't know if they dragged that guy to the border, to the airport or what, but they guy was interviewed and he was surprised to have received an award from the President.

Oh Gosh--I hope it wasn't the Medal Of Freedom to Michael Brown!!!!!

Nah, it was some guy who does volunteer work for the police department.

Funny side note: the head honcho for the Republican Party in this area is named Michael Moore! I just love it!