Bush’s Ridiculous Speech About Immigration Reform

08 Jan, 2004 by John Hawkins

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I just want to comment on a few of the things that jumped out at me as I read the text of Bush’s speech about the horrendous new immigration legislation he is going to propose.

To begin with, this line just chaps me…

“As a nation that values immigration and depends on immigration, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud. Yet today we do not.”

No, our immigration laws don’t work or make us proud. You know why? Because we don’t make an effort to enforce them. It’s like telling your kid to clean his room, having him watch TV instead, and then having him look you in the eye and say, “you know the system we’re using to get my room cleaned up just isn’t working”.

Here’s more from Bush…

“Many undocumented workers have walked mile after mile, through the heat of the day and the cold of the night. Some have risked their lives in dangerous desert border crossings or entrusted their lives to the brutal rings of heartless human smugglers.

When they’re victimized by crimes they’re afraid to call the police or seek recourse in the legal system. They are cut off from their families far away, fearing if they leave our country to visit relatives back home they might never be able to return to their jobs.”

Yes, that’s pretty much what happens to criminals everywhere isn’t it? I mean even though a drug dealer works hard and does dangerous work, he can’t very well call the police and tell them someone stole his crack can he? Of course, if he were in an honest profession or if the illegal aliens obeyed our laws, they wouldn’t have this problem would they?

Then Bush tosses off this whopper about the border…

“First, America must control its borders. Following the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, this duty of the federal government has become even more urgent, and we’re fulfilling that duty.”

No, the government isn’t “fulfilling that duty”. We still have illegals, drug dealers, and probably terrorists pouring across our border because the Bush administration even after 9/11, will not commit the necessary resources and manpower to get the job done.

Then this paragraph begs an obvious question…

“Employers must not hire undocumented aliens or temporary workers whose legal status has expired. They must report to the government the temporary workers they hire and who leave their employ so that we can keep track of people in the program and better enforce our immigration laws. There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties for anyone — for any employer violating these laws.”

…and that question is, “why can’t we go ahead and do that NOW”? If we did this today, most of the people who are here illegally would go home because they couldn’t find jobs. So why do we have to wait until after we’ve made all these illegals who don’t respect our laws into citizens to do this?

Then there’s this…

“The citizenship line, however, is too long, and our current limits on legal immigration are too low.

My administration will work with the Congress to increase the annual number of green cards that can lead to citizenship.”

Our population is growing as it is and isn’t unemployment higher than we’d like as it is? So why do we want to INCREASE the number of people flooding into our country legally?

Last but not least, Bush hit this theme several times…

“Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics: Some of the jobs being generated in America’s growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling.”

As Mark Krikorian explained in yesterday’s National Review, those jobs would be filled by Americans if the illegals weren’t driving down wages.

Does that not make perfect sense? I mean people get all up in arms about companies going overseas to get cheap labor, but when the cheap labor COMES HERE, those same people just assume that Americans “won’t do those jobs”. Sure they will, just not at the same price.

I can only hope that Congress fights Bush all the way on this bill and stops it cold. Giving illegal aliens legal status is only going to cause even more of them to flood across our borders to fill up our prisons, our schools, and leech off of our social services. Our government should be doing everything in its power to stop them instead of rewarding them for breaking our laws.