PEOPLE AND PUNDITS have found plenty to argue about in the president’s State of the Union message, but there have been few complaints about his remarks on immigration.
The ideas the president presented were not new — it’s the same collection of reforms he has been urging for several years.
Here is what the president said Tuesday night:
Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America, with laws that are fair and borders that are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country.
To secure our border, we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol, and funding new infrastructure and technology.
Yet, even with all these steps, we cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border. And that requires a temporary worker program.
We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result, they won’t have to try to sneak in.
And that will leave border agents free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals and terrorists.
We will enforce our immigration laws at the worksite and give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers so there is no excuse left for violating the law.
We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals. We need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country, without animosity and without amnesty.
Convictions run deep in this Capitol when it comes to immigration. Let us have a serious, civil and conclusive debate so that you can pass — and I can sign — comprehensive immigration reform into law.
In brief, the president wants secure borders, an official path for guest workers to get into the country, a way to deny jobs to illegal immigrants and a mechanism for dealing with illegal immigrants already in the the country.
As it did before, the president’s immigration plan makes sense. The only difference is that now, with Democrats in charge of Congress and the midterm elections over, the plan may have a chance of becoming law.
Immigration has been one of the few issues on which President Bush was willing to disagree with his conservative base. When Bush first presented the plan, it was immediately buried in a flood of campaign rhetoric from congressional and state-office candidates trying to outdo each other in stoking the fears of voters and demonizing immigrants.
Before the election, too many politicians were more interested in having a hot-button issue to energize their campaigns than in working to create a workable solution to a real problem.
But with the new Congress in place, the president’s plan offers the best hope of true bipartisanship in this session.
westaber (anonymous) says...
Immigration is a big issue the illegals that come to the untited states is dipping into our welfare and social security. Excuse me but some of the american's can't get on some of these program's after they have paid in to these. Vision cards this is another problem come to emporia and get one. We got homeless people in emporia who can't qualfiy for this.
January 30, 2007 at 3:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )