Shortly after President George W. Bush took office in 2000 he put forth an immigration proposal that flew in the face of Republican conservatives.
The President’s plan was to relax the immigration constraints and actually give citizenship to millions of illegal aliens who crossed into the country
illegally. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 the President shelved the controversial plan and downplayed it while campaigning against
Senator John Kerry. However, now just over a week after winning reelection President Bush is pushing to breathe new life into the plan.
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"We are formulating plans for the legislative agenda for next year," said White House political strategist Karl Rove. "And immigration will be on
that agenda."
He added: "The president had a meeting this morning to discuss with a significant member of the Senate the prospect of immigration reform. And he's
going to make it an important item."
While the president was huddling with Mr. McCain, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was pushing the plan during a visit to Mexico City. "The
president remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform as a high priority in his second term," he told a meeting of the U.S.-Mexico
Binational Commission. "We will work closely with our Congress to achieve this goal."
But key opponents in Congress said Mr. Bush's proposal isn't going anywhere.
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The news came out of a meeting within the Oval Office between the President and Arizona Senator John McCain. The two discussed plans to revive the
once dead amnesty plan. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell was addressing a US-Mexico Bi-national Commission in Mexico City. The Secretary
stated, “The president remains committed to comprehensive immigration reform as a high priority in his second term.”
The plan is unlikely to pass because the Republican Congress remains skeptical of the plan. Additionally several members of Congress are confused as
to why the president choose to revive the exact same plan Congress flatly denied in January 2004. Many in Congress are astonished the president
choose this legislation to be his first major push of his second term when he has other high profile agenda items, such as tax simplification and
Social Security Privatization, that remain untouched.
Despite allegations to the contrary and the questionable pushing of the amnesty legislation the Bush administration unequivocally denies using the
legislation as a reward for the increased Hispanic vote it received this election.
This news is bad news for conservatives everywhere. Conservatives believe that countries must have boundaries in order to remain to be a country. If
a countries borders are made porous then the country itself compromises it’s meaning, it’s purpose, and most importantly it’s security. In a time of
such unprecedented security concerns this type of legislation by a President who ran as a tough on terror candidate is totally unacceptable.
