YUMA, Ariz., April 9, 2007
Bush Renews Push For Immigration Reform
During Visit To Arizona Border Town, President Presses Congress To Pass Guest Worker Program
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The Cost Of Immigration
Illegal immigration is costing the country billions of dollars each year. Prisons, health care and education are among the areas directly affected. Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
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President Bush, right, tours the fence along the U.S-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on April 9, 2007. (AP)
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But Mr. Bush again pressed Congress to change immigration laws to allow illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to work here.
"If you have people coming here to do jobs Americans aren't doing, we need to figure out ways they can do so in a legal basis for a temporary period of time," he said in a speech at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Yuma.
Mr. Bush said illegal immigrants should not be given amnesty and would have to pay a fine and meet other criteria before they could apply for U.S. citizenship.
The president hoped to send a message — particularly to conservative critics from his own party — that the stepped-up border enforcement is working. His get-tough message was meant to prod Congress into passing a guest worker program for immigrants, a signature domestic policy goal.
Mr. Bush was joined by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., whose support is seen as critical to any deal in the Congress.
Another lawmaker vital to Mr. Bush's effort, Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, said Monday: "President Bush did the right thing today by speaking out."
"Only a bipartisan bill will become law," Kennedy added. "There is a lot of common ground, especially in the need to strengthen our borders and enforce our laws, though important differences remain to be resolved."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled time for immigration debate in May.
Both the president and the Democratic-run Congress are eager to show some accomplishment on a core issue like immigration. But it's a sticky subject, and the fault lines don't necessarily fall along party lines. For Mr. Bush, opportunities to see through his domestic agenda are shrinking.
Administration officials led by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez have been meeting privately for weeks with Republican senators. That expanded to a meeting in late March with key senators from both parties.
Out of that session, a work-in-progress plan emerged — one described as a draft White House plan by officials in both parties and advocacy groups who got copies of the detailed blueprint.
The White House disputes that characterization. Spokesman Scott Stanzel said it was only a starting point, an emerging consensus of Republican senators and the White House.
Regardless, the floated proposal has already met opposition. Thousands of people marched through Los Angeles on Saturday, spurred in part by what they called a betrayal by Bush.
The plan would grant work visas to undocumented immigrants but require them to return home and pay hefty fines to become legal U.S. residents. They could apply for three-year work visas, dubbed "Z" visas, which would be renewable indefinitely but cost $3,500 each time.
Stressing security, Mr. Bush said, "If you don't man your border and don't protect your borders, people are going to sneak in.
"You cannot fully secure the border until you take pressure off the border," the president said. "And that requires a temporary worker program."
He also pushed his plan to let illegal residents become citizens, provided they pay fines, take steps to become well-rounded Americans and get behind others who have been waiting.
It is impractical to try to round up and send home 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, he said. "It may sound good," he said. "It won't happen."
Arriving in Yuma, Mr. Bush and Chertoff took a quick look at the "Predator," an unmanned plane that border officials use to monitor the region.
Mr. Bush pointed to two new layers of fencing that have been erected at the border since he visited the same spot a year ago.
"It's amazing the progress that's been made," he told border officials. "I was most impressed by your strategy, but more impressed by the fact that it's now being implemented."
With up to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., lawmakers haven't agreed on how to uphold the law without disrupting lives, eroding the work force and risking political upheaval.
Mr. Bush is hopeful for a legislative compromise by August.
The president's relations with Congress these days have been soured by the war in Iraq. He is at odds with Democratic lawmakers over a bill to extend war funding in Iraq and Afghanistan.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 206 CommentsYeah, your votes are welcome, but if you think they're going to give the country away to you for free - forget it. They'll give it away in return for their cut - and a lot of it.
Greedy corporations don't want to pay 'livable' wages so they expolit the unfortunate victims of corrupt and incompetent regimes in Mexico, Central and South America. Just another of our problems that feeds on itself.
The only solution is to break the chain. Enforce our immigration laws. Deport those who have broken the law by illegally entering our country.
The current tax burden from illegal immigration is $100 BILLION each year. That equals $5000 for each of the 'estimated' 20 million illegals in our country. We could give each of them $4000 and a 'first class' ticket to Mexico City and still be money ahead.
We should shift that burden back where it belongs, force corporations to pay fair wages, (a good example of the costs, tomato prices increase $.06 per pound) then use that money for fixing the problem rather than feeding it.
Of course all these illegal immigrants have enough funds to accomadate the necessary travel expenses, and fines for legal re-entry into this country.
OR: since 98% of illegal border crossings are not prosecuted, these illegal immigrants will continue to take their chances crossing the border illegally.
FTAA is KNOWN to be a corporate MUST in order to have a worldwide peon work force.
The experience of the European Union and the World Trade Organization makes it clear that a common market requires a court system, so the CFR document calls for "a permanent tribunal for North American dispute resolution." Get ready for decisions from non-American judges who make up their rules ad hoc and probably hate the United States anyway.
The CFR document calls for allowing Mexican trucks "unlimited access" to the United States, including the hauling of local loads between U.S. cities. The CFR document calls for adopting a "tested once" principle for pharmaceuticals, by which a product tested in Mexico will automatically be considered to have met U.S. standards.
The CFR document demands that we implement "the Social Security Totalization Agreement negotiated between the United States and Mexico." That's code language for putting illegal aliens into the U.S. Social Security system, which is bound to bankrupt the system.
U.S. taxpayers are supposed to create a major fund to finance 60,000 Mexican students to study in U.S. colleges.
To ensure that the U.S. government carries out this plan so that it is "achievable" within five years, the CFR calls for supervision by a North American Advisory Council of "eminent persons from outside government . . . along the lines of the Bilderberg" conferences.
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south and east and west with better searching of shipping containers and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
A 59-page CFR document spells out a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."
"Community" means integrating the United States with the corruption, socialism, poverty and population of Mexico and Canada. "Common perimeter" means wide-open U.S. borders between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. "Community" is sometimes called "space" but the CFR goal is clear: "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital, and people flow freely." The CFR's "integrated" strategy calls for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people."
The CFR document lays "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." The "common security perimeter" will require us to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations" with Mexico and Canada, "harmonize entry screening," and "fully share data about the exit and entry of foreign nationals."
This CFR document, called "Building a North American Community," asserts that George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal when they met at Bush's ranch and at Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005.
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south (and east and west with better searching of shipping containers) and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
If their home country is such a sty, why don't they clean it up instead of leaving it? They love to raise flags, suggesting pride, so why are they otherwise showing the precise opposite of pride?
No doubt people in other countries feel the same way when other people from foreign countries, like the US, want to build a nest in their neighborhoods? And what if the US citizens who fled opted to hoist an American flag as well? Crass and insulting, isn't it? (Though I'll also admit that emigrating a choice I often feel tempted with, so I can see the other POV as well, but that's another topic. Nothing is ever so simple.)
Having said all that, dallison7 and knyghtwolf have the best results to a far more encompassing problem.
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south (and east and west with better searching of shipping containers) and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
%u2022 Mexico has the second-highest highest Gross Domestic Product in Latin America, after being #1 for several years over second-place Brazil.
%u2022 When measured in GDP per capita, Mexico ranks #1 as of 2005, ahead of Chile and Venezuela.
%u2022 According to Forbes magazine, a substantial proportion of Latin American billionaires, 10 out of 26, were Mexican as of 2005.
%u2022 Mexico raises less revenue through taxation than nearly any other Latin American country, just 12 percent which is one reason why the nation's wealth is not better utilized. By comparison, the United States takes in 25-28 percent of its gross domestic profit in taxes. Even Brazil taxes itself at twice the Mexican rate.
%u2022 Economist Gary Hufbauer of the Institute for International Economics has remarked, "It's up to Mexico to solve its problem, and basically the wealthy classes do not want to tax themselves, period. While I'm not usually an advocate for larger government, Mexico is a country where public investment, done wisely, could pay huge dividends."
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south (and east and west with better searching of shipping containers) and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
THIS COUNTRY IS NO LONGER AMERICA..AND IS NO LONGER FREE, TO HAVE KING GOERGE DOING WHAT HE WANTS IS NOT A FREE COUNTRY.
HE NEEDS TO BE TRIED FOR TREASON AND MURDER OF THOUSANDS OF TROOPS FOR HIS OWN GAINS WITH THE HELP OF CHENEY,RUMSFELD,RICE THEY ALL NEED TO BE ARRESTED NOW..ANY AMERICA CAN MAKE A CITIZENS ARREST, SO I HOPE THEY COME AROUND HERE..
Mexican emigration is driven by a combination of factors. Part of it is economic. But part of it, as even the Fox administration now admits, is driven by personal and cultural factors.
Much of it is sheer inertial momentum. Mexicans have been conditioned to go north in search of work. They have plenty of relatives and friends who have already made the trip and can help them make theirs. Remittances from Mexicans in the U.S. encourage more emigration. Migration routes are in place. A whole network of smugglers is established on the border.
The really destitute Mexicans are too poor to emigrate to the U.S. After all, it costs money to get to the border and it costs money to pay smugglers. So the really destitute Mexicans stay home, or migrate to shantytowns in Mexican urban centers.
http://www.vdare.com/awall/060216_admission.htm
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south (and east and west with better searching of shipping containers) and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
"The only thing that one can feel is embittered,'' said Guillermo Noriega Garcma, a 56-year-old farmer who took part in the assault on the 20-acre estate that stands in the middle of parched subsistence farms. "How can it be that one man has everything and others don't even have water?''
The episode is just one sign of how the current economic crisis has deepened already serious divisions in Mexico.
It has exaggerated the gap not only between rich and poor, but also between the industrialized north and the rural south, between Spanish-speaking Mexicans and the 10 million who are Indians, and between those whose lives are increasingly tied to the U.S. economy and those who are entirely dependent on the fortunes or failures of Mexico.
The degree of income disparity in Mexico is among the worst in the world and is steadily growing more extreme. Excluding African countries, Mexico has the largest gap between rich and poor of all but six nations in the world, U.N. and World Bank figures show.
Today the richest 10 percent of Mexicans control 41 percent of the country's wealth, while the bottom half of the population receives only 16 percent of all national income. The government admits that the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty has grown to 22 million, an increase over just the last 15 months of 5 million people, roughly equal to the population of Scotland.
His plan basically amounts to a $300.00/mo. charge for the priviledge of working here. The great majority of Hispanic immigrants are unshilled who take menial jobs.
Let's say they clear $250.00/wk at minimum wage. After paying the $300.00/month "immigrant tax", they'll still have to pay income taxes on their earnings.
This is not reform. It's stupidity.
Radical Shintoism we dropped an atomic bomb on in WW2 and we went all out to win rather than always second guessing our Commander in Cheif. Radical terroristic Islam will kill more people if we do not deal it a death blow like we did warlike and radical Shintoism in Japan.
Let's secure our borders north and south (and east and west with better searching of shipping containers) and figure out a way through fines and such to naturalize the illegals among us so they can bear the same tax burden the rest of us do as legitimate citizens.
1st offence-confiscation of all belongings in American territory, and deportation
2nd offence-confiscation of all belongings in American territory, and imprisonment for a year at MOST.
3rd offence-execution.
At the point of the 3rd offence, there's no stopping them. If you read Gibbons' 'The decline and fall of the Roman empire' you'd be clamoring for every illegal's head.
Posted by dauid_ben at 08:18 AM : Apr 09, 2007
U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic experts in Bush's own administration say the violence in Iraq is primarily a struggle for power between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim Iraqis seeking to dominate their society, not a crusade by Sunni jihadists bent on carrying the battle to the United States.
Foreign-born jihadists are present in Iraq, but they're believed to number only 4% to 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency and a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research center.
"Attacks by terrorist groups account for only a fraction of insurgent violence," said a February DIA report.
THIS do NOTHING Congress? Where the HELL have you been? Then you go on to address the issue of OUR invading the WRONG Country for the WRONG reasons in the same breath as the Great Harry Truman's decision to use the Atomic Bomb in WW II. You are without a doubt the most confused human alive. Wasn't it HITLER who had the same approach to freeing people that you have. Wasn't he the one who wanted to free people by KILLING them all? I mean I've heard some stupid statements in my time by YOU? You are in more need of education than any human alive.
undocumented residents my a*s they are illegal foreigners THEY ARE NOT RESIDENTS send them all back where they came from.
If they want to live and work in america let them come to this country legally just as other people have always done.
These people broke the law,why do we put bank robbers in jail they only wanted some money.
Citizens of this country are treated more harshly than non citizens IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.
Write this down.......this Congress will accomplish nothing for the next two years.....DEMs almost never take on tough issues.........really sad.......
Posted by skyk at 08:36 AM : Apr 09, 2007
They never picked my produce, they never cleaned my home, they never did my gardening.
I have nothing against them being here other than they did not come here legally.
The corporations and individual contractors giving jobs to illegal aliens (call them what they are) are the BAD GUYS, and should be put in prisons. The story that illegal aliens do work Americans won't do does not hold TRUTH. Realistically, if it does, then what will happen to the work force once the illegal aliens become American citizens? Would we have to bring in more illegal aliens?
There should be NO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES given to H1B visa holders, or green card holders, or illegal aliens when there is a US citizen in need of work. Is Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, really wanting to help the US workers when he wants unlimited H1B visas? NO, and H*ll NO!! He, like most rich people, just wants to get more wealth by getting cheaper labor force.
Posted by perception5 at 08:47 AM : Apr 09, 2007
Hey moron the reason that bill did not get passed is because YOUR GOP controlled congress had another tax cut for your wealthy tacked on the bottom of the bill.
You know it is called PORK when the democrats do it.
Learn how to spell idiot.
'WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL'
Blah, blah, blah, . . . After 6 years of a Republican controlled congress, and the problem with getting an Immigration Bill through is 4 months of a Dem Congress. Please. I think the previous useless 6 years has more to do with that.
In fact Saddam wasn't the terrorist who was a real threat to the USA but it is Mexico right? Shouldn't we have gone into Mexico and overthrow those ******* drug dealers? Seems to me we should not put up fences, but expand Americanism into Mexico. Let them come to cold USA, so we can invade their land where it is warm. With our military we can stop any troubles from those drug dealers. By opening up I think more people will want to stay in Mexico than come North. Think about it man. Let's make Mexico the 51st State. Stop building fences and boxing yourself, you'll have plenty of that when you're dead.
Posted by perception5
The Robber Barson Republican's always veto every minimum wage bill! The GOP is the reason it never gets pasted. Get your facts straight! But, then we know there isn't a Republican alive who has their facts straight or they wouldn't be a Republican! A lot of states have had to start putting the issue to the voter to get something done. That's how it got passed in Nevada! But, the GOP won't ever do anything about workers wages!
There should also be a collective outcry for the impeachment of this president based on his alleged "trade policies" that have virtually destroyed the middle class. Contrary to the rhetoric of Bush's camp, he has placed this country in harms way every single day by refusing to secure our borders and demand "fair" trade policies.
One can only wonder what "war on terror" Bush is fighting when his policies permit anyone free access to this country via the Mexican border, yet this administration persecutes two Border Patrol agents who are now imprisoned based solely on the word of a convicted drug smuggler who was granted immunity.
Read any Phoenix paper - I'm not from there, but I know...
BUT if you think that the MOVEON.ORG funded, Mechista-influenced Pelosi Dems are better, you'd better think again. The California and Arizona TREASON parties are filled with Mechista leaders in the top echelon, and both Pelosi and Reid kiss their tooties - don't believe that? Look at Teddy Kennedy's behavior. They've wanted open borders and free educational and medical perks for non-citizens for a long time.
What do you do? You vote for and put pressure on Republican legislators but DON'T VOTE for a party that not only will betray on the battlefield but on the border too. Republicans will get the message despite Bush - Dems only hear the voice of defeat - and treason.
Superpatr898
Really where's your evidence to support your bogus claims?
What did the GOP Congress do about border security for the twelve years it was in power?
I believe the 9/11 commission gave the GOP an F on border security.
Blah, blah, blah, . . . After 6 years of a Republican controlled congress with a Repulbican President, and the problem with getting an Immigration Bill through is 4 months of a Dem Congress. Please. I think the previous useless 6 years has more to do with that.
first the the "they take jobs no American wants is a lie and many Americans know this" then, to have them pay only 2K in taxes after being here for years and not paying anything--and possibly using our hospital, roads and schools is a slap in the face to every American. Third, the rise in crime, deterioration of some areas and the arrogance of illegals--demanding rights that they actually do not have due to having broken the laws to be here in the first place--do not endear them to many. I actually thought Bush's proposal was a good compromise. It does make it harder and the fines and fees are great--but if one wants to be a citizen then one can put there money where their mouth is--simply cutting in the line and illegally crossing the border does not work--EARN the right to be here despite disrespecting the laws--if democrats push for anything less, Bush will leave them holding the bag and Democrats will pay the price (including losing Congress) because once Bush leaves, all the mess will be in their laps.
america is done listening to lease killers..
so lets still help them. not..
let them kill each other just as they have been doing for thousands of years.. we cant and wont change there thinking..
Posted by dauid_ben at 07:23 AM : Apr 09, 2007
Where have you been for the last 19 years? We already did all of this in 1988 under Reagan. What did we end up with? the laws NOT being enforced the Illegal ranks projected at 6 million actually netting over 12 million new citizens and now they only gave the green light for more of the same. This led to Hispanics being the new largest minority. Now we have supposedly 12 million, (read 18 million) and we want to try what we know will never work. Let me see...kill the people we are supposed to liberate who had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or 9/11 and APPEASE the group that is quickly colonizing us , let them pay nominal fees then BE citizens? A citizen is more than a person who has a paper, or works here and sneaks across the border. A citizen is LOYAL to this country and puts America above any other country or party or race. Illegal Hispanics put 'La raza' first and though they do embrace our money and way of life--they remain loyal and put Mexico first and send money there. Not to mention by starting out disrespecting our laws (and being given the greenlight by gov.--what makes you think they will take the rest of the laws seriously? George Bush is not the only one who thinks our constitution is just a godd*mned piece of paper--now idiots like you want to import them.
Mmaybe the smoke from t*rd polishing will obscure that disgusting oil invasion, or maybe our crooked attorney general will look cleaner thru the haze of confusion...
they will stop pritty fast..
the same sad story (or worse) can be told by millions in Africa, Haiti, India and other countries. Unfortunately, they can't just pay someone to sneak across a river. Also, due to the line jumpers, those who must wait and come in the legal way often wait a LOT longer. I have friends with family who have waited over 15 years to get in, in the meantime, their mother died and never got in. They were told it was due to the large influx of illegals and therefore, the decrease in the need for others. THAT is reason enough to dislike law breakers. Lots of people have a need and a sad story--what gives these the right to have more need or more entitlement and NOT take their place in the line just like everyone else?
it may be that we have more like 20or 30 million maybe even 100 million who is to say . us americans cant get a truthful answer out of our own government..
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