Sorry George, This New Proposal is "All Hat, No Cattle"

On Immigration, Bush Seeks 'Middle Ground'
President to Send 6,000 Guard Troops to Mexican Border

By Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; Page A01

President Bush said last night that he will dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops starting next month to help secure the porous U.S.-Mexican border, calling on a divided Congress and country to find "a rational middle ground" on immigration that includes providing millions of illegal workers a new route to citizenship.

In a rare prime-time speech from the Oval Office, Bush said the nation must move immediately to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants from its southern border by sending in the National Guard to free up U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The Guard troops will provide intelligence, surveillance and logistical assistance over the next two years -- not armed law enforcement.

"We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that," Bush said. He also called on Congress to end the U.S. practice of releasing into the country tens of thousands of people caught illegally crossing the southern border because officials lack the jail space or legal authority to detain them or send them home. He said every foreign worker should be required to hold a high-tech, tamper-proof identification card so U.S. companies could determine whether their employees are legal.

For the first time in a public forum, Bush endorsed new procedures that would give illegal immigrants who have lived here for an extended time preferred status in obtaining citizenship. To qualify, workers would have to pay a fine and back taxes and would have to learn English and meet other requirements, he said.

The speech -- with its balance of security measures and pleas for tolerance -- comes as Bush is trying to revive his presidency and salvage an immigration deal in Congress before the midterm elections. The president's focus on border control last night was aimed at mollifying conservative Republican lawmakers and disgruntled voters, who have accused him of paying insufficient attention to tightening the border and enforcing immigration laws. Bush said his goal is to help lawmakers forge a bipartisan compromise this year to change how the United States deals with illegal immigration and the pressing need for foreign workers.

"All elements of this problem must be addressed together -- or none of them will be solved at all," he said.

With the Senate set to debate the largest overhaul of immigration laws in decades, Bush did not specifically address what many Republican lawmakers consider the most politically explosive and intractable issue confronting the country: what to do with most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States today.

In conversations with lawmakers earlier in the day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove made it clear that Bush supports, in principle, a Senate-backed plan that would provide immigrants who have lived here for five or more years a clear path to citizenship if they pay a penalty, according to participants. Under that plan, which Rove called "intriguing," those who have been here two to five years would have to report to a border crossing, receive a temporary work visa and then apply for a green card. Those here less than two years would have to leave. But Rove made it clear the White House is open to compromise on how this tiered system would be structured, said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who participated in the private briefings.

Bush said: "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation. That middle ground recognizes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently and someone who has worked here for many years and has a home, a family and an otherwise clean record."

But the Republican-controlled House so far has been hostile to the emerging Bush plan. Conservatives in that chamber are pushing for legislation that would tighten the borders but would not allow any route to citizenship that does not require first leaving the country. House Republicans recently passed legislation to spend $2.2 billion on five double-layered border fences in California and Arizona, stretching nearly 700 miles. The House would also make felons of any undocumented worker in the country today and would make illegal any activity to support such workers, such as smuggling as well as church-based sheltering. After the speech, House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement that he remains committed to making "border security our first priority." He and many others pointedly did not praise the path-to-citizenship plan.

If Bush was shooting to ease the anxiety of those of us who oppose unrestricted immigration he missed the target. This is where Middle of the Road turns into Muddle the Road.

President Bush has once more betrayed the trust of his base. Those of us who helped him get elected are no longer of any use. The very idea that Vincente Fox can call him expressing his displeasure with the positioning of 10,000 National Guard troops and the President Bush lowers the number to 6,000 troops, is really disturbing.

Vincente Fox doesn't care about the US except what he can get from us. Are we forgetting the recent legalization of drugs in Mexico? I tell you. Bush and most of the idiots in Washington just do not get it.

I now predict the easy victory of the Democrats in 2006 as millions of Conservatives refuse to vote. If the Republicans tried to lose control of both Houses of Congress, they could not have done a better job. The one thing most Republicans cannot stand is a gutless Republican legislator, and this will prove out in November of 2006 if the RINO's and WEINERS don't do something and do it quick.

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