Reaction To President’s Speech Open Trackback

I watched the short speech that President Bush gave a few minutes ago dealing with immigration. Anyone who reads this knows that I have not been thrilled with the President’s stance on immigration, especially with regard to ILLEGALS. The speech tonight did not change my mind in this regard. The President said some things that I do not really have a problem with. I have no problem with a guest worker program. I just think the guest workers should be people who are not already here ILLEGALLY. We can get people who did not break the law and let them be guests. A man who breaks into your house would not be treated as a guest so why treat a person who broke into our country as one.

I also agree that we need to have a way for employers to check the status of people they hire. The use of forged documents is a big deal, even when CBS is not involved. There should be some kind of worker card required before an employer may hire someone. The card Bush talked about with biometrics is fine so long as it is issued by the government after a comprehensive background check. No card, no job. They can make this retroactive and they can allow a grace period for people who are here legally to get a card. If after the grace period you do not have a card then you do not have a job.

As for the amnesty part, and that’s what it is, I am not in agreement. I do not care how long the people have been here they should not be allowed to pay a fine and stay. They should have to pay a fine and then go back home for a year before they can apply to come back as a guest worker. It is not like many will even apply since they would run the risk of being deported for a number of things plus it would cost them money and they would eventually have to pay taxes. All are disincentives for the ILLEGALS. We need to get tough with the ones who are here ILLEGALLY and round them up. We can start by going after the 9.3 million W-2s that do not match up with a person or SSN. We can issue worker cards to the legals and then deny work to anyone who does not have one. We can require all employers to reevaluate the status of every non-citizen worker in his employ. We need to be tougher than the President is willing.

The guard to the border is a good idea. We can deploy special units to build walls, roads and other infrastructure. They can construct barriers and conduct surveillance. They can clear obstacles to observation so that the agents can see the border crossings more clearly. If we need to, we can deploy the MPs to the border to set up detention camps to hold those who must be processed for deportation. The military has the resources to do a great number of things that will help in the process.

I am interested in your thoughts on the President’s speech, his plan and my reaction. You can comment or trackback. In addition, this is an open trackback so feel free to TB on any subject.

Trackback:
Stop the ACLU | Ed Driscoll | Point Five

Related article:
Donkey Cons