Following intense public backlash against President Bush’s idea to grant amnesty to Mexican illegal aliens, the White House now says its main interest is in a temporary guestworker program.
As previously covered in Immigration Report, the Bush Administration, both in recent talks with Mexico’s President Vicente Fox and in a Cabinet-level memo on immigration, has advocated giving amnesty to Mexicans illegally in the United States and allowing them to remain.
Commenting on the reasoning behind his amnesty plan, Bush said, “We ought to make it easier for people who want to employ somebody, who are looking for workers, to be able to hire people who want to work.”
But so negative was the reaction by key legislators and supporters of immigration reform that the White House regrouped and is distancing itself from using the word ‘amnesty’. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), for example, said, “It’s bad policy to say, ‘If you violate the law, we’re going to reward you.’” A nationwide poll by the Christian Science Monitor found that 44 percent opposed granting an amnesty compared to only 26 percent in favor; 30 percent remain undecided.
Arrayed against the people are a panoply of organizations that profit off illegal immigration and support an amnesty for illegal aliens: the National Council of La Raza, the American Health Care Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, the National Immigration Forum, the National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Immigration experts warn that even Bush’s discussion of giving amnesty-under any name-has begun a rush for the border. According to San Diego Border Patrol Agent Joe Gutierrez, “Rumors are flying, and that does increase interest and activity by those at the border.” A representative of the Law Enforcement Advisory Council (LEAC), an organization of former INS and Border Patrol agents, agreed. “Any type of amnesty or ‘regularization’ of illegal aliens would not only send people running to cross our borders but would overwhelm the INS,” said Jim Dorcy of LEAC. An amnesty or guestworker program would add such additional burden on INS as to cause a total meltdown of an already failing agency.”
Source: New York Times, 7/27/01; Christian Science Monitor, 8/9/01.
09/2001
