America is asking what NumbersUSA is saying about President
Bush's Immigration Speech . . .
" . . . President sides with Senate Democrats: Endorses Citizenship Amnesty for
illegal aliens for 1st time"
THIS IS ABOUT WHAT PRESIDENT BUSH SAID IN HIS LATEST NATIONWIDE TELEVISED SPEECH
President Bush used his pledge to use the National Guard on the border as just another way
to sell the overall open borders agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
There were many negative reactions of TV commentators and members of Congress. We are
getting a lot of signs of hope on Capitol Hill for beating the
Bush-Kennedy-Frist-Hagel-Martinez-McCain-Specter "comprehensive" amnesty in the
House and maybe in the Senate.
As you think over your position on our nation's immigration crisis, you may be interested
in our observations here at NumbersUSA on Bush's speech.
No. 1: Pres. Bush endorses citizenship for most of the 12 million illegal
aliens
For more than two years, Pres. Bush promised not only that he would oppose an
"amnesty" but that he was opposed to giving citizenship to illegal aliens and
that illegal aliens have to eventually go home.
But in his speech , he gave 100% support to citizenship for most of the 12 million illegal
aliens in this country—without any of them having to return home. He said he rejected
those who argue for amnesty for illegal aliens. He also said that "some argue to
deport every illegal immigrant."
( Please read carefully: NO RESPONSIBLE PERSON on our side is arguing for mass
roundups—certainly not NumbersUSA. )
The president then proposed a "rational middle ground" that makes illegal aliens
pay "real penalties" and who have to suffer through the supposed hardship of
paying back taxes and learning English while abstaining from committing any felonies.
Then, all of the illegal aliens should get a chance to become citizens as a part of our
"welcoming" immigration tradition, he said.
( NumbersUSA promotes the REAL middle ground position of "attrition." That means
steadily stricter enforcement that dries up jobs and causes larger numbers of illegal
aliens to go back home on their own. )
No. 2: Pres. Bush attempts to re-define Amnesty
Bush said, "Amnesty would reward people for breaking the law". He said he
opposes amnesty.
But then, after describing how he would reward nearly all illegal aliens with citizenship,
he claimed that what he had just described is somehow not an amnesty!
Of course, Senators Kennedy, McCain and most of the nation's newspapers have preceded him
in changing the meaning of "amnesty" because they discovered in polling that
Americans oppose anything called an amnesty.
In Bush's address, he stated that he will order the National Guard to stop illegal aliens
from storming our borders. Incredibly, later in the speech, he described those same
illegal aliens as just good people who work hard and go to church.
No. 3: The President skewers House enforcement-only bill and endorses the
amnesty and immigration increases of the bill being debated in the Senate. We think that
everything the President called for (except the National Guard) matches what is in the
bill on the Senate floor that was put together by Sen. Hagel (R-Nebraska) and Sen.
Martinez (R-Florida). This bill is built on the outline of a bill that was first written
by Sen. Kennedy's (D-Massachusetts) staff.
In so doing, the President set himself up four-square against the majority of his Party in
the U.S. House who passed H.R. 4437 in December that deals with illegal immigration only
through enforcement and not by primarily offering rewards (as in the Senate bills).
Nonetheless, I liked the first part of his speech acknowledging that we do not have
control of our borders and about the pressures that puts on our schools, hospitals and
many other parts of our society. Some commentators said they didn't remember Bush
previously detailing those kinds of problems.
No. 4: Senate Democrats solidly behind Bush
Sen. Durbin (D-IL) delivered the Democrats' response. He made a few swipes at the
President to remind people that they aren't in the same Party. But then endorsed nearly
everything the President had said. Durbin tried to one-up the President in doublespeak by
saying that Congress should not give an amnesty but that illegal immigrants who "work
hard and play by the rules" should have the chance to become citizens.
Made me wonder what "play by the rules" means in Sen. Durbin's part of the
world! In initial floor votes on amendments, the majority of Republicans are opposing
President Bush while the majority of Democrats are supporting him.
No. 5: Bush and Durbin apparently are not aware that any nation has
immigration laws to protect the vulnerable members of its own community
Nowhere in their speeches did they show any awareness that the numbers of new foreign
workers each year could actually harm anybody. All of their attention was on the fairness
to all the foreign nationals who are just trying to better themselves by illegally coming
here.
If anybody heard a drop of compassion for disabled Americans who are as unemployed today
as a decade ago...or for the 40% of Black American men who don't have a full-time job . .
.or for the masses of underemployed American programmers and engineers....or the 12
million Americans who are now or have just recently been on the official unemployed
rolls...or for urban Americans who spend too much of their lives stuck in congested
traffic, commerce, schools and recreational areas...or for millions of American families
who have been struggling to adjust to declines in their real wages..... If anybody heard
any compassion for these Americans by Bush or Durbin, please point it out to me.
No. 6: Sen. Frist and Sen. Allen: Two very different ways to run for
President
Both Sen. Frist (R-TN) and Sen. Allen (R-VA) are strongly considering runs for the GOP
presidential nomination in 2008. Both of them were on the Hannity & Colmes cable show
to respond to Bush's speech. The contrast could not have been greater.
Unlike Bush and to his credit, Frist did not hide the fact that he had radically changed
his position on amnesty. He admitted that he had fairly recently insisted that enforcement
should be pursued before taking on other aspects of "immigration reform" and
that he had not been in favor of legalizing illegal aliens.
Immediately after, Sen. Allen did something that no major presidential candidate has done
in 14 years: He positioned himself in a way that makes it possible for him to lay claim to
the loyalties of the majority of Americans of all parties who want to get tough on illegal
immigration. Allen said he was glad the President finally is coming around to
acknowledging that we should seal the border with fences, virtual fences, detention
spaces, more Border Patrol and supplementing with National Guard.
But Allen went on to say . . . . . . that the country must not "reward illegal
behavior!" He said he does not support his President's providing a path to
citizenship. Allen accused the President of not fighting fair. He said the President in
his speech had "set up a straw man" by claiming that the alternative to amnesty
was mass deportation.
He said nobody is pushing that as the alternative. It is a false choice. And it doesn't
describe the enforcement approach of the
anti-amnesty Members of Congress.
Join 195,000 other Americans working for immigration sanity using the free internet tools
provided by NumbersUSA, a non-profit, non-partisan immigration-reduction organization. Ready
To Act? Click Here
NumbersUSA 1601 N. Kent St., Arlington, VA 22209.
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