President Bush spoke about immigration reform yesterday, according to the Denver Post [November 29, 2005 "Bush touts border plan"]. From the article, "President Bush promised Monday to step up efforts to close the border to illegal immigrants, but he insisted that the crackdown be accompanied by a guest-worker program open to the millions of people who are already in the country illegally. Bush's speech came as Congress has begun to grapple with legislation to overhaul immigration laws, an issue that has divided the Republican Party. While many businesses rely on immigrant labor and favor a guest- worker program, a large group within the party believes tougher border enforcement is most important and that a temporary- worker plan would only attract more undocumented workers...Answering critics who call a guest-worker program a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants, Bush vowed to oppose any proposal providing an 'automatic' path to citizenship, and he said that participants in a guest-worker program ultimately must be required to return to their homelands."
Here's the text of the President's speech from Blogs for Bush.
Here's the coverage from the Rocky Mountain News [November 29, 2005, "Tancredo finds parts of speech hard to swallow"]. From the article, "Tancredo has been among the most outspoken congressional critics of Bush's plan to allow some illegal immigrants to receive three-year work visas if they have willing employers. Tancredo equates it to 'amnesty' for people who entered the country illegally and has vowed to lead the fight against it. Still, Tancredo said Bush's speech signals progress since he also spoke of tougher measures to secure the border and tougher enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants."
Meanwhile the Denver Post reports that the President has a big job selling his program to Republicans and Democrats [November 29, 2005, "Colorado observers skeptical of revised immigration plan"]. From the article, "...Jan Herron, a backer of a proposed ballot initiative that would cut off services to illegal immigrants in Colorado, was less encouraged. 'I totally disagree with the president,' Herron said. 'I'm a Republican, and I don't like what he's doing. I think the majority of the party doesn't like what he's doing, and I think the Republican Party is in big trouble.'"
The Denver Post editorial staff weighs in on the President's efforts [November 29, 2005, "A house divided on immigrants"]. They write, "The president continues to walk a kinder, gentler line on immigration, seeking to satisfy business owners who don't want anything to jeopardize a low-cost supply of ready labor. At the same time, many party leaders want Bush to promote policies that will help the GOP woo Hispanic voters...This country definitely needs a meaningful debate on immigration reform. We don't know if Musgrave plans to press her case with the president today, but Republicans seem far from any consensus."
Oliver Willis: "I guess they've given up pretending and prefer to throw some red meat to the base, saying that they really don't like those brown-skinned folks. Now, I'm against 'guest worker' programs myself, and I think we ought to have secure borders - including our northern border, the one the GOP doesn't seem to care about - but the Republican's immigration jones is nothing more than a sop to the racist base of the Republican party (see Malkin practically panting with anticipation here). I see 2008 in the GOP being a race to prove who hates the brown-skinned folks the most."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:15:06 AM 
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