George Bush was never one of us never will be, he comes from a long line of Northeastern progressives. I don’t care if he lives in Texas, elitism runs in his blood. And I truly can’t stand Karl Rove, his disastrous “compassionate conservatism” lead us right to the disaster that is Obamacare. He should be consigned to most inner circles of Dante’s hell for what has transpired since he was de facto “political advisor” for the Republican party.

The status quo sucks. Amnesty did not work for Reagan, so it will not work now.

I would prefer a realization that immgration is a good thing. It is uncontrolled illegal immigration that is bad, especially when we are not assimilating those new immigrants. We should be soliciting the best and the brightest from around the world, not acting as a job service for the Mexican economy. Will that discourage some engineering and science students in the United States? Not if it is done right. We get a syngeristic effect by having these people come here. Japan and China can and never will do that. We can. Europe has figured it out and is doing it.

Not that I have any problem with Mexican workers. I am no fan of Mexican criminals, but most Mexicans come here just wanting to work and make an hosest living. Plus Latin American immigrants are generally assimilate over time (unlike the Eurabia issue in Europe). But bringing in lots of cheap labor from Mexico only takes away good jobs from Americans. I would increase the legal immigration from Latin America, but not at the levels currently realized for illegal immigration.

And you stop illegal immigration with work place fines. No need to deport anyone (other than the felons). Just crack down on businesses and employers who hire illegals and fine them to a level that makes it not worth their while to do so.

I would prefer a realization that immgration is a good thing.

This is the kind of thinking that’s gotten us into trouble. It confuses an end for a means. Immigration is not a good in itself. It’s a means to a good. Some years the U.S. would be better off without it, sometimes not.

The funny thing is that a couple of years ago this article would have been dismissed as another anti-Bush hit piece. I hate to tell you guys that we told you so, but…we told you so.
Yet your side still adheres to Rove politics because in your mind anyone that drives Libs crazy is useful to your cause. Apparently you find Rove useful even if he doesn’t represent your best interests.A recipe for disaster? I’m telling you so…
The question of immigration reform really questions the fundamental crisis of Capitalism as it is interpreted by many: “a huge fraction of Washington insiders have persuaded themselves that low wages are what made America great.”
Americans will work shit jobs if the pay was fair. As long as businesses insist on low wages as their key to personal wealth, illegal immigration will persist.
Kind of like your propensity for electing phonies…

It may not be 1900 anymore, but this country benefits from new blood and legal immigration. Granted you want to control it and you definitely do not want to open flood gates in a recession. Obviously not all immigrants are equal and criminals have to be gotten rid of. I trust new immigrants to be better Americans than fat leftists like Michael Moore.

The issue is not illegal, legal or uncontrolled immigration. The issue is mass immigration. We had a decent immigration system up through 1965. We took in about 180,000 per year which allowed us to select the people we needed, like an NFL draft, and to assimilate them. Mass immigration is changing that.

We were also told we needed immigrants because our women were not at replacement level fertility, and thus our aging population would not be able to receive their retirement benefits unless we had new, younger workers.

Europe, Canada, Japan, S. Korea and the US all face this issue. However, Japan and S. Korea have decided that immigration is not the fix. They have not accepted mass immigration into their nations. As a result Japan and S. Korea will face problems as their aging population retires and there are not enough young workers to support them.

Europe, Canada and the USA have implemented mass immigration to solve this problem. Guess what? All of us still face this impending problem of having an elderly population supported by fewer workers. Our social security system will still go bankrupt. The trouble is our new immigrants, who aren’t screened like they used to be for self-sufficiency, consume more benefits than they pay in taxes.

Now the US, Canada and Europe will have an additional problem that S. Korea and Japan won’t. Namely, we will have all the problems associated with diversity and multiculturalism. We will see this manifest itself in ridiculous hate crime legislation, disparate impact legislation and racial and ethic lobbies that put the interest of groups above nation.

I think Japan and S. Korea are in a better position now and probably feel relieved that they didn’t emulate this peculiar Western phenomenon.

There are TB cases where non existed before because of illegals. Thanks Bushies.

As for Rove he should be accorded the same respect that Reid/Pelosi merit.

This is what makes it difficult to believe or take to heart many of the after-the-fact pronouncements of the Bush administration.

Seriously, this is an economic and moral issue, if not simply a *ahem* Constitutional responsibility issue. The border is out of control because it’s out of control. It would take the stroke of a pen…but apparently long-term economic viability and demographic consistency (an influx of middle-aged, low-paid unskilled workers) isn’t enough of an ‘emergency.’

It fits our needs perfectly the advantage of immigration reform on the country: Greater supply of unskilled workers, a younger workforce, and skilled workers in needed sectors. But there is also a disadvantage of immigration reform like Greater poverty, more educational cost, lower unskilled wage levels, and increased danger of terrorism. Thanks to the post!