Highlights of Bush's Immigration Speech

President Bush made some good points last night in his speech.

The five points he laid out are excellent starting points for advancing the need for border security, immigration control and immigrant assimilation.

From the White House Transcript of the President's address:

• First, the United States must secure its borders....6,000 Guard members will be deployed to our southern border.... increase federal funding for state and local authorities assisting the Border Patrol on targeted enforcement missions. We will give state and local authorities the specialized training they need to help federal officers apprehend and detain illegal immigrants.
• Second, to secure our border, we must create a temporary worker program....that would create a legal path for foreign workers to enter our country in an orderly way, for a limited period of time. This program would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers for jobs Americans are not doing. Every worker who applies for the program would be required to pass criminal background checks. And temporary workers must return to their home country at the conclusion of their stay.
• Third, we need to hold employers to account for the workers they hire...comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility. A key part of that system should be a new identification card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamper-proof. A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law, and leave employers with no excuse for violating it. And by making it harder for illegal immigrants to find work in our country, we would discourage people from crossing the border illegally in the first place.
• Fourth, we must face the reality that millions of illegal immigrants are here already. They should not be given an automatic path to citizenship. This is amnesty, and I oppose it....I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, to pay their taxes, to learn English, and to work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions should be able to apply for citizenship.
• Fifth, we must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples. The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language. English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America. English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery, from cleaning offices to running offices, from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career, and a home of their own. When immigrants assimilate and advance in our society, they realize their dreams, they renew our spirit, and they add to the unity of America.

Put me on record as being underwhelmed by point four which legitimizes illegals who have been in this country for a number of years. Yes, if they WANT to assimilate, I welcome them. But if they choose to ignore this opportunity, what mechanism is there to return them to their country of origin? That question seems to be routinely ignored in this entire debate.

As for point five, wouldn't it be great if we still had an education system in this country that taught what it was required to BE an American instead of how to protest America? The liberal desire to promote multiculturalism has destroyed the public education systems prior focus on assimilating new citizens AS AMERICANS. See the research on that and the rest of the assimilation fantasy here.

As for the other points, all fine. As long as a guest worker program requires those who wish to participate apply from their home country, are not permitted to bring their family here and enforcement is applied to make sure they return.

Growing up as a child in Ohio, I recall the "migrant workers" who visited our community every fall to pick tomatoes in the field that went into the Heinz Ketchup plant in town (that was before the Heinz Company was hijacked by the whacked out Teresa H. Kerry). They lived in small cabins at the farm and returned to wherever after the tomatoes were picked.

The bottom line: I didn't expect a firebrand conservative conversion from President Bush's speech last night and I was not disappointed. Now, let the Senate pass their bill and let the House knock some common sense into a final product. Or do as Congressmen Peter King and Tom Tancredo have said: get the border security now and sit on the rest until it is done right.