Bush Speech on "guest worker" program
We see millions of hard-working men and women condemned to fear and insecurity in a massive, undocumented economy.
Boo hoo, drug dealers live in constant fear of being arrested too.
Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans have are not filling. (Applause.)
Who is applauding? Chairman of the Hispanic Alliance for Progress, Manny Lujan. Gil Moreno, the President and CEO of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans. Roberto De Posada, the President of the Latino Coalition. And Hector Flores, the President of LULAC.
Fourth, new laws should provide incentives for temporary, foreign workers to return permanently to their home countries after their period of work in the United States has expired.
The wording is important: "incentives" to return home. Not "force them" to return home. We are going to give them Social Security in their home countries!
I propose a new temporary worker program that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. This program will offer legal status, as temporary workers, to the millions of undocumented men and women now employed in the United States, and to those in foreign countries who seek to participate in the program and have been offered employment here.
Does anyone else want to continue to debate me on whether or not this "plan" is amnesty? Anyone?
All participants will be issued a temporary worker card that will allow them to travel back and forth between their home and the United States without fear of being denied re-entry into our country. (Applause.)
Some temporary workers will make the decision to pursue American citizenship. Those who make this choice will be allowed to apply in the normal way. They will not be given unfair advantage over people who have followed legal procedures from the start. I oppose amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the automatic path to citizenship.
This is a departure from the current law which does not allow criminal aliens to gain citizenship. If this isn't amnesty then nothing is.
3 comments:
No, Daniel, I don't want to debate you. I would point out that the speech you are directing people to is over 2 years old though (Jan. 2004).
I would encourage you to read more recent speeches. I quoted some relevant segments in earlier comments here and also on my webpage.
I agree, rewarding people who have broken the law with any sort of legitimizing status is bad practice. At the same time, the whole world uses guest workers. Heck, some of our own Americans are guest workers in the Middle East, Europe, South America, Canada, etc...
There are going to be guest workers from many countries here in the States. Are you proposing we kick everyone out who goes through the proper channels to work here and deny them all the chance to gain citizenship?
Guest workers do not always equal illegals and I think this is where some of the misunderstanding is taking place.
Why can't you stop? Why should you? You've got this issue nailed in my humble opinion.
It's a no-brainer really. Our current administration has done very little while floating the same basic ideas to the public for the past 5 years. They can rearrange the wording all they want, but their proposed guest worker program still amounts to...dare I say it? AMNESTY! Those who disagree with that are in a state of denial or ill informed.
For those in need of a refresher, my dictionary defines amnesty as follows:
* a period during which offenders are exempt from punishment
* pardon: a warrant granting release from punishment for an offense
* the formal act of liberating someone
* grant a pardon to (a group of people)
It's a shame this issue has stirred up so much crap over the past few days. Atkinson may have slipped, but writing him off so quickly seems like a knee jerk reaction. Also think a few bloggers should tone down the rhetoric a tad. Sure, it's amusing, but were not laughing with you. Let the candidates duke it out for a while. In the interest of unification (and ousting our current governor), I pledge to cast my ballot for whoever my republican friends choose as their nominee. Count it.
rumor has it that "crips" and "bloods" have banded together against latinos gangs in So. Cal.. Also, afro-american/latino riot in prison? If true, one would expect another 'can't we all just get along?' speech. It would also be hard not connect border problems with this. Keep going, Daniel, criminals and parasites need to go.
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