Finally: Dual Approach to Immigrants

Bush finally proposed his new five-objective immigration reforms - a much-needed proactive, dual-approach to the issue of illegal immigrants and our southern border. The first element triples the man-power along the border, along with higher fences, motion-sensors, etc., in effect, boosting our defenses against illegal entrance. This is important, both to guard against masses surging from the southern latin countries but also key to protecting against terrorists that may use the poorly-protected stretch to escape watch-lists, etc. A lot of Americans would adamantly agree with that (whether they consider his proposal beefy enough is another discussion).

The second element, a bit more contentious, is a guest-worker program. I know in Europe past guest-worker programs have not been completely successful in recruiting workers for a temporary period of time... many times it simply allows them to become legal initally and then find ways of staying and bringing family members. On the other hand, guest-worker program increases the number of immigrants that are taxed and that are tracked from initial entry, both very helpful to the U.S. government. There is no need to say that there are hundreds and thousands of jobs Americans do not want ... jobs immigrants are grateful for. Let them have them.

The article I was reading from BBC stated that "Mr Bush was trying to appeal to opposing sides of the debate" ... on the surface it may seem a compromising act of appeasement, but in my understanding his proposed initiatives are both crucial factors of one issue. There may be many things that have annoyed me about our President as of late, but on this issue I am with him.