Bush Illegal Amnesty Plan
Outcome of Bush Illegal Amnesty Plan Appears to Rest With Kyl
WASHINGTON, May 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Bush Administration,
together with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), appear to be
making one final run at approving a massive illegal alien amnesty and guest worker program. With some notable dissenters within the Democratic ranks, and the certainty that any guest worker amnesty proposal will be wildly unpopular with voters, Reid needs to cobble together enough Republican votes to pass such a bill and to provide him, and his slim majority, political cover.
To satisfy Reid’s demands for political cover, the Bush White House,
which has set passage of a guest worker amnesty as the final domestic
priority of this administration, has designated Arizona Senator Jon Kyl as
the man in charge of rounding up enough Senate Republicans to push the plan
over the finish line. Kyl, who has been both a loyal ally of the president
as well as an outspoken opponent of amnesty for illegal aliens, is reported
to be working feverishly to craft “compromise” legislation that allows
millions of illegal aliens to remain in this country, while allowing
lawmakers and the administration to deny that it is an amnesty.
“Jon Kyl is being placed in an impossible position that can neither
serve the nation’s interests, nor his own,” observed Dan Stein, president
of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). “When the
president of the United States taps you on the shoulder and asks you to be
his point man, it’s hard to refuse. But at the same time, Sen. Kyl’s record
makes it very clear that he knows that no matter how you dress it up, any
legislation that allows illegal aliens to remain in this country is an
amnesty.”
The last gasp effort to enact a guest worker amnesty program that Kyl
has been asked to head up comes as a new poll shows that President Bush’s
public approval rating has sunk to a historic low of 28 percent. “Sen. Kyl
has been among the most outspoken and eloquent opponents of amnesty for
long time. Unlike President Bush, he fully understands the dangers of
rewarding people who break the law and the staggering costs any amnesty
program would likely entail,” noted Stein. “Clearly there is no public
interest justification for advancing an eleventh hour amnesty bill, and
given the president’s abysmal standing with the voters it is hard to
understand what political benefit can be gained from reviving a moribund
guest worker amnesty bill.
“Sen. Kyl has been a principled national leader and vocal proponent of
enforcing our immigration laws, not rewarding immigration law breakers,”
Stein continued. “While there is no national support for a massive illegal
alien guest worker amnesty bill, there is across the board support for the
sort of immigration enforcement measures that Kyl has promoted throughout
his years in Congress. The brief window of opportunity that now presents
itself would be best used to enact legislation that enhances our nation’s
ability to control illegal immigration, rather than some nuanced plan that
everyone will readily identify as an amnesty.”
SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform
Related links:
http://www.fairus.org