Why the President didn't win me over

Taken at face value the President’s speech wasn’t that bad. In fact it had some good stuff in it. For example hiring more Border Patrol officers and sending the National Guard to the border to fill support roles that free BP agents to actually patrol the border.

While I would prefer no guest worker program, the US economy does not need more illiterate peasants to depress wages, I can live with the program that the President outlined. Temporary work permits which allow no possibility of permanent residence or citizenship with an effective monitoring apparatus.

I’m even willing to put aside the fact that the President is determined to grant effective amnesty to those alien criminals who are already here. I won’t accept it, but I will put it aside for the purpose of this discussion.

Where the President’s speech falls down for me is that I don’t believe it. Even the great Ronald Reagan dropped the ball on illegal immigration. When Ronnie granted amnesty to the illegals in the US in his day it was done with the promise that the border would be closed to illegal crossing so that there would never again be a need deal with a massive number of illegals.

If even Reagan failed to follow through with the promise of effective border control why should we believe Bush will? Even if he has every intention of honoring his commitment to border control why should we believe that congress will allow him to? Remember in the US system the president may propose, but the congress disposes. The Democrats are aware that the more Mexicans they can pack into the nation the better their political future and the Republicans seem to be completely the bought lapdogs of the business interests that want to keep wages at the starvation level.

If the President wanted me on his side last night he needed to have acknowledged history. He needed to have told the people that he understood that the government had forfeited any trust that the American people might have placed in it to honor a promise to take the steps needed to control the border. He needed to have told the people that the government was willing to earn their trust back by deferring any amnesty or guest worker program for a period of years while the border was secured with a physical barrier and a dramatically beefed up Border Patrol.

He didn’t do any of that. What he did do was tell us that if we give him a guest worker program and amnesty for those here illegally now that we will begin to control the border in the future. Oh, some things will be done in the present. National Guard troops will be sent on a temporary basis and congress will be asked to fund more Border Patrol personnel but we are just supposed to take his word that the new BP agents and NG troops will be used effectively over the long term.

There is nothing to suggest that we should trust him. We’ve been lied to too often in the past.