Looking for a few good men (and women)

“More than two-thirds (68%) of Hispanics favor making English the official language of the U.S., according to a 2002 Tarrance Group, Inc. poll.”

“this is the thread that ultimately led to the death of sarge.
last edited: 11/23/05 4:08:33 PM”

“What?

Read from the beginning.

This is the thread where I correctly predicted (over BearMagnet) the non-violence of the MinuteMen.

ENS - Get another hobby. You suck at thinking of stuff.”

“Bush to Press for New Immigration Plan By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago (off Yahoo news)

WACO, Texas - President Bush is trying to build support for a comprehensive immigration strategy — and mollify conservatives wary of his guest worker plan for foreigners — even though Congress has shelved the issue for now.

Republican congressional leaders have postponed work on immigration proposals until early next year, partly because lawmakers are divided over the scope of such changes and whether foreigners illegally working in the United States should be allowed to stay.

The president was leaving his Crawford, Texas, ranch after spending nearly a week there for Thanksgiving, to pitch his plan in Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, and El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday. The border states are home to GOP senators who have been vocal on the need to change immigration laws but who aren't entirely sold on Bush's vision.

The president's plan pairs a guest worker program for foreigners with border security enforcement, an attempt to satisfy both his business supporters, who believe foreign workers help the economy, and his conservative backers, who take a hard line on illegal immigration.

In Tucson, the president planned to aim his remarks at those conservatives, emphasizing his proposals to secure the border, remove people who enter the country illegally and strengthen enforcement of immigration laws.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked Bush in a letter Monday to encourage bipartisan and realistic reforms to immigration laws.

"Enforcement alone does not work. Unless we address the gap between our immigration laws and reality, illegal immigration will not stop and the situation on the border will continue to be chaotic," Reid said.

The Democrat implored Bush to "stand up to the right wing of your party and stand up for what is right" by taking more than an enforcement-only approach to illegal immigration.

The president's two-day push on border security and immigration comes a month after Bush signed a $32 billion homeland security bill for 2006 that contains large increases for border protection, including 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

Bush has been urging Congress to act on a guest worker program for more than a year. Under his plan, undocumented aliens would be allowed to get three-year work visas. They could extend that for an additional three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.

The guest worker program has met some resistance in Congress, where several bills on the issue have been introduced.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., along with Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., has proposed providing illegal aliens in the United States visas for up to six years. After that, they must either leave the United States or be in the pipeline for a green card, which indicates lawful permanent residency.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., support an alternative proposal that would require illegal aliens to return to their home country to apply for a temporary worker program.

Senate GOP leaders plan to take up legislation early next year that will address a guest worker program. Their counterparts in the House have indicated they want to take up border security first and then move to a guest worker program.

While in Arizona on Monday, the president also planned to attend a fund-raiser in Phoenix for Kyl as campaigning for next year's congressional elections gets under way.




Best plan they can do is shut the friggin borders.”

“Little Consensus on Immigration Policy By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 1, 2:37 PM ET (Off Yahoo News)

WASHINGTON - From building a fence to keep them out to passing a law to help them stay, members of Congress have lots of ideas on how to respond to President Bush's challenge to take on the problem of illegal immigrants. There's a will to act but so far not much consensus.

The first stab at the problem could come in the next two weeks, when the House may vote on legislation to strengthen border security. That's the easiest of the three legs of immigration reform. The others, enforcing workplace hiring rules and setting up a guest-worker program that might incorporate illegal immigrants, are far more divisive.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to bring up a border security bill in February, and use that as a starting point for broader reform. "We must boldly address the challenges of border security first," Frist, R-Tenn., said this week as Bush toured the Texas-Mexico border to stress the need for both tougher border controls and a guest-worker program.

The House bill will likely come from Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., with the focus on tighter borders and some elements of workplace enforcement. His spokesman, Jeff Lungren, said it could contain a proposal by Rep. Ken Calvert (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., to expand a program for verifying employee records with the Homeland Security Department and the Social Security Administration, and another by Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., to make Social Security cards more tamperproof.

But there are lots of other proposals to choose from. The Homeland Security Committee this month approved a bill by its chairman, Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., that would add border patrol agents, make use of new monitoring technology including unmanned aerial vehicles and end the "catch and release" practice for non-Mexican illegals.

Dozens of other border security bills have been introduced, many by conservatives and border state lawmakers fed up with the government's failure to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., is seeking $2 billion to build a fence along the border with Mexico. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who has made a crackdown on illegal immigrants the theme of a longshot presidential bid, is among several who would change existing law to allow use of the military for border enforcement. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., has an extensive bill that would let state and local police enforce immigration law.

"I expect it to grow," Lungren said of Sensenbrenner's bill.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that fencing didn't make sense in deserts. "A wall across the border would be phenomenally expensive," he told reporters, and "it wouldn't be particularly effective."

Congress already has taken several steps this year to tighten border security, including making it easier to deny admission to people linked to terrorism and setting national standards for obtaining drivers licenses. A Homeland Security Department spending bill this October provided money to add 1,000 border patrol agents to the current 11,000.

In the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has put together a more comprehensive bill that picks and chooses from various sources. It models border and interior enforcement provisions on a bill backed by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, employment verification from a bill by Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., and a guest-worker program put forth by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

"I do not necessarily endorse every provision" in the package, Specter wrote in a letter to Senate colleagues, saying it will "serve as a starting point for discussions."

The Cornyn-Kyl and McCain-Kennedy bills are the top contenders on the guest-worker issue. Cornyn-Kyl would require people in the country illegally to return to their home countries to apply for a new temporary worker program. McCain-Kennedy would permit illegal immigrants to obtain work visas for up to six years, after which those not applying for permanent residency would have to leave the country.

Angela Kelley, deputy director of the pro-immigration National Immigration Forum, applauded the Senate for more directly confronting the issues of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and the demand for low-skilled workers that draws them to this country. "In order for this to work, you've got to get the people who are the subject of this legislation to participate" in the outcome, she said.

As a base bill on border security, the Senate could turn to a proposal by Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to hire more inspectors and patrol officers and ask the National Guard and a volunteer force of retired law enforcement officers to help monitor the northern and southern borders.

But as in the House, there are a variety of choices. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, would also give state and local law enforcement a greater role and create a "volunteer border Marshall plan" under which state-licensed peace officers would join border patrols on temporary missions. Sen. Larry Craig (news, bio, voting record), R-Idaho, would allow migrant farmworkers to stay legally and earn points toward legal status.




Mexico rejects US border fences

President Bush wants tighter security along the Mexican border

Mexico says it opposes a US plan to build more fences along the border in order to control illegal immigration.
Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said his country "does not believe physical barriers are the solution".

President George W Bush announced the construction of more fences in the 3,200km (2,000 miles) border while touring US states earlier this week.

About 10 million Mexicans live in the United States and more than four million are said to stay illegally.

More than a million are arrested every year as they try to enter the US to look for work.

Mexico voted against the fence Israel built in the Gaza Strip

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez

Experts said the migration trend would continue because of the huge wage gap between the US and Mexico.

Mr Derbez insisted his country's position over physical barriers was not only in relation to the United States.

"Mexico voted against the fence Israel built in the Gaza Strip, and against the fences Spain built in Melilla and elsewhere," he said.

The US has already built a border wall between San Diego and Tijuana.

'Adapt'

President Bush toured US states to rally support for his strategy to control immigration. He wants tighter security along the Mexican frontier.

He said his government planned to erect wire fences in the urban areas where there was no physical division between the two countries.

Mr Bush added that in the rural areas, barriers preventing the free flow of vehicles from Mexico into the US were to go up.


Many Mexicans try to cross the border with the US in search of a job

He promised the use of unmanned flying drones to help patrol the porous US-Mexican frontier.

"Border security must adapt to the nation's changing needs," Mr Bush said.

He also plans to allow migrants with a job offer to stay in the US temporarily.

Some of his own supporters resist the so-called guest-worker plan. Under his proposal, undocumented aliens would be allowed to get three-year work visas.

They could extend them for an additional three years, under the condition that they would return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.

But some Republicans say Mr Bush's ideas would reward illegal immigration. Others think the border would still not be secure enough to keep out terrorists and drug-traffickers.”

“By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer
Dec 20 3:23 PM US/Eastern

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, has struck back with radio ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government is also hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image.

Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced the U.S. measures, passed by the House of Representatives on Friday, as "shameful" and his foreign secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said Monday the wall was "stupid."

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/20/D8EK6GGO9.html”

“"the Mexican government is also hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image."

Wanna imporve your image? Stay the @%$^ home!”

“Bush's lackadaisical way of handling our borders has created a tense situation where the governor has to actually clarify her actions by saying "We are not at war with Mexico."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_re_us/border_troops_1”

“we are not at war with mexico ?

Are you sure ?”

“LOL! I agree that maybe we should be.”

“They are just ,'quest workers'. What is the range in estimated, 'workers'numbers, from 1-99 million? Close enough.”

“Here's a flip-flop we can all agree on ...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/22/060322081757.e1blb1k1.html”

“Well, it looks like the Democrats have their heart set on destroying the best thing to come from the Republicans ... a fence along our border w/ Mexico.”

“o well. maybe we'll get some more good restaurants”

“Spend that fence money on something worthwhile--employer sanctions. Look at the co.(Golden State Fence Co) that built 7 miles of border fence in the late nineties. They hired illegals to built that and are now being investigated for hiring illies.

The illy problem solution is a snap. First , deport all of the residents of Texas to Mexico. Give Texas to the illies that live in the other 49.”

“Where will the money for the fence come from?

Oh yeah, just borrow/steal-from-the-future.

Our kids won't mind.”

“Where will the money come from to pay for the illegals' healthcare, welfare, education and general gov't infrastructure useage?

Oh yeah, just borrow/steal-from-the-future.

Our kids won't mind.”

“Yeah, change the subject.

Your kids won't mind.

Employer sanctions are a lot less expensive than a multi-billion dollar fence.”

“We put up a fence, and then what?

People find a way around, under, through or over it.”

“whats the mexican record for pole-vaulting?”

“Phaedrus, the contractors who build the fence will be happy.

What else matters?”

“Change the subject? ... You're the one who brought up the dollar cost of building the fence.”

“whats the mexican record for pole-vaulting?

I was thinking more of a Great Escape theme.”

“Thats why the Mexicans can't win in the Olympics....averyone who can run, jump, and swim is already in The US.”

“Let me guess who would build the fence: Halliburton!”

“Maybe Bush could invade Mexico!”

“Why? heck most of the mexicans are already inside the Continental US. I say pass laws dealing with Illegals that mirror the Mexican Laws...(LOL)”