Amnesty may be dead, for now

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 21, 2006; Page A01

In a move that could bury President Bush's high-profile effort to overhaul immigration law until after the midterm elections, House GOP leaders yesterday announced a series of field hearings during the August recess, pushing off final negotiations on a bill until fall at the earliest.

The announcement was the clearest sign yet that House Republicans have largely given up on passing a broad rewrite of the nation's immigration laws this year. They believe that their get-tough approach -- including building a wall along the border with Mexico and deporting millions of illegal immigrants -- is far more popular with voters than the approach backed by Bush and the Senate, which would create a guest-worker program and allow many illegal immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship.

From their word processor to God’s ears. Please let this abomination die the painful death that it deserves.

The House move was widely viewed as a slap at Bush, who is seeking a comprehensive immigration bill along the lines of the one approved by the Senate on May 25, which would tighten border controls, establish a guest-worker program for future immigrants and offer most of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal residents a chance to become citizens. The announcement came shortly after Bush left on a trip to Europe.

Does the president really not understand that if that 12 million (in reality it is more like 20 million) illegal aliens (the vast majority Mexican) had been citizens in either 2000 or 2004 that he would not be president today?

The United States is very evenly divided between Republican and Democrat with a small edge for the Republicans. In other words the nation is slightly right of center in a political sense. Mexicans here legally vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats. The highest percentage of Mexicans ever to vote for a Republican candidate was in Texas where 30% of them voted for George W Bush in his last statewide race for governor.

He did not get those numbers in either of his runs for the White House. Even in Texas Hispanics who had voted for him for governor voted or Gore or Kerry instead of him in his presidential races.

Why in the name of God do the Senate Republicans or President Bush think that things will be different if we allow 10 plus million more Mexicans to vote in future elections?

If you want America to become a hyper-taxed, hyper-regulated socialist state (the kind of nation that Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore would make it) then support the immigration plan passed by the Senate and supported by the White House.


**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.