So today, U.S. President W decided to propose some legislation that legalizes undocumented workers in the U.S. This legislation is W's lame attempt at trying to gain the Hispanic swing vote on Election Day this year. What, are the Republicans going to lower taxes on rice next to gain the APIA vote?
It seems that Bush and his advisors are picking off topics one by one. No Child Left Behind, social security privatization, tax cut, medicare bill, and now this? What's next? Phony environmental protection? Enamored voters rights? Bring it on G-Dub, we're watching.
What bugs me, is that I think the people that don't really follow politics closely, and don't look at the whole picture, won't look at a candidate or party's history before deciding which way to vote. I was guilty of this for years, but now, I'm exposed to politics everyday, and it has become really interesting. Admittedly, I don't necessarily get both sides of the story, nor perhaps the full story, but the points that are made that I hear, are all valid, and from what I can see, make a lot of sense.
*added 1/8/04
"After three years of silence and inaction, President Bush unveiled a glorified guest worker program that has the potential to do more harm than good. Instead of putting hard-working immigrants on the path towards citizenship, he is guaranteeing their deportation.
This proposal violates the basic principles of fairness and family unity, and would guarantee deportation for millions of hard working immigrants.
The Bush plan would not provide any new means of putting immigrants, who currently live, work and pay taxes in the United States on a path to legal residency. The plan does not change the eligibility requirements to make it easier for undocumented workers to obtain a green card.
Bush?s immigration plan would force undocumented immigrants registered as guest workers to ?return home? if they did not have continual employment or were not renewed in the program after the duration of the work visas was up. When the White House says ?return home?, what they really mean is that these workers would be deported.
President Bush could have shown his commitment to immigrants by supporting a meaningful earned legalization proposal and by consulting Democrats in Congress, who for many years have worked on trying to pass meaningful immigration reforms and who have been blocked by Republicans at every attempt.
Bush is using the vital relationship between the United States and Mexico as a political commodity traded to garner the vote of the US Hispanic community. But Hispanics are intelligent voters and they can see right through this proposal and realize that it is an electoral gimmick.
Pro-immigration groups strongly criticized the much hyped immigration proposal unveiled yesterday by President Bush, saying "Hispanic Americans are extremely disappointed with the President's announcement today on immigration policy."
And while pro-immigrant activists blasted the proposal, Bush also angered the right-wing anti-immigration activists in his own party. Trying to please everyone, Bush pleased no one.
This plan was drafted with the business community, and it is them who benefit from the creation of an underclass of workers that get the short end of the stick of this proposal.
It is highly likely that any pro-immigration proposal would once again be killed in the Congress, even though it is controlled by Bush's own party. Prominent Republicans are already bashing any proposal, including Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith and Immigration Reform Caucus Chair Rep. Tom Tancredo."
Posted by yakuza at January 7, 2004 11:26 PM | TrackBack