President Bush’s Solution to the Illegal Immigration Problem

Hey, you know all those illegal aliens you risked "life and limb" to "app"? FAH-GED-ABOWD-IT; President Bush has solved the problem. Those who sneaked by you will be made legal - "earned legality", he calls it. (Don’t be confused and call this an "amnesty", even though those who are here illegally will suddenly become legal and will be allowed to stay here. The President assures us that it’s not an amnesty.)

Those who are waiting to sneak in will be allowed to come as "temporary (yeah, right) guest workers." Well, first they need to find a willing employer who’ll offer them a job at minimum wages after he claims he just can’t find a legal worker to take the job. This applies to all types of jobs, by the way; I doubt that many legal carpenters, welders, masons, pipe fitters (you get the picture), etc., are going to want to work for the minimum wage. Then the poor employer is just going to have to go outside the U.S. to find his workers. Those darn Americans just don’t want to work.

Regardless of how you feel about President Bush, I think most of us would agree that his proposal is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever tried to enforce the immigration laws of the U.S. It implies that the country really wasn’t serious about it in the first place, in spite of what you were told about "the big picture." And, in the meantime, while you’re out there trying to do your jobs - which the country isn’t too serious about - you’ll have to deal with the expected increase in attempted EWI’s who are trying to get here to take advantage of the proposed amnesty - oops, earned legality.

If you disagree with the President’s "plan," it’s not too early to call the White House and let him know. While you’re at it, call your senators and congressmen. Or write. Or FAX. Or email. Or all of the above. It only takes a few minutes and it really does matter. I think it’s accurate to say that those of us who have been fortunate(?) enough to do some lobbying believe that they pay attention. But it’s the number of contacts that can sway them. On top of that, I think they’ll listen a little closer to a Border Patrol employee who says that this is demoralizing or whatever you want to call it.

President Bush has to write the legislation and find someone to introduce it, but that shouldn’t take long. Once that’s done, it’ll be time for even more contacts.

If you need more information on the proposals or how to go about contacting the White House or Congress, give someone a call or send an email.

John H. Frecker

VP/NBPC