June 16, 2006

McCain, Kennedy, Specter, Pence…Bush!

Two weeks ago, in my column "Joe Feels Good About Immigration Bill…" I said that S. 2611, what we here at VDARE.COM refer to as the Bush-Kennedy-McCain Senate Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration Bill, would die a quick and painful death.

Hoping not to sound too boastful, and hoping even more that I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch, I nevertheless proclaim that I was right on the money.

S. 2611 is deader than a doornail.

Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s statement earlier this week that he wants to "take a long look" at the Senate bill finishes it off for good. The longer anyone looks at it, as one of our astute VDARE.COM readers discovered, the uglier it becomes.

Now the spotlight turns to the twisted Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) and his proposed garbage that involves voluntary one-week return trips home for aliens (s-u-r-e!), labor brokers and a bunch of other harebrained schemes for amnesty that would not pass a third grader’s smell test. Read all the details here

Because Pence fools no one, I predict his absurd plan will die, too.

The biggest roadblock to immigration sanity is not McCain, Kennedy, Specter or Pence. Our biggest concern remains George W. Bush—driven since the first day he occupied the White House by his fanatical devotion to the misguided concept of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Bush, at any time in the five and a half years since he took office, could have all but ended illegal immigration with a snap of his fingers: pick up the phone, call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and say "Start rounding them up."

Just the threat of deportation, occurring randomly among alien enclaves around the country, would do wonders for slowing down the invasion.

But Bush has moved further and further away from America’s wish to end illegal immigration and has instead embraced a disastrous policy that offers amnesty to all and would serve as an inspiration for more aliens to come to America.

Consider the recent speech Bush made in Omaha, Nebraska.

On June 7^th at the Metropolitan Community College (e-mail the Board here), Bush paid homage to illegal aliens and Catholic Charities.

First, Bush called Catholic Charities "a center of love and compassion." But as VDARE.COM’s Thomas Allen has demonstrated repeatedly, it is actually part of the tax-addicted “Refugee Industry” racket.

Then Bush followed up with his mandatory but gratuitous alien success sob story (about Salvador Pia who borrowed ten grand from Catholic Charities and now owns Pia Auto Repair with three employees!), before getting on a roll.

Said Bush:

"When I get back to Washington I'm going to sign an executive order ... It's going to work to help people at the grass roots level expand the teaching of English and civics and history instruction programs, to help others assimilate into America."

And:

"I've also signed legislation that created an Office of Citizenship at the Department of Homeland Security to promote knowledge of citizens' rights and responsibilities. In other words, one aspect of making sure we have an immigration system that works, that's orderly and fair, is to actively reach out and help people assimilate into our country. That means learn the values and history and language of America."

But as VDARE.COM has documented, also repeatedly, assimilation is not going to happen no matter how many pieces of meaningless legislation or executive orders Bush signs.

In my day job as an English as a Second Language instructor at the Lodi Adult School, I’m "at the grass roots level" and ready to "expand the teaching of English and civics and history…."

Too bad the classroom, despite no fees to enroll, has so many empty seats.

The desire to assimilate comes from within…and among the current crop of illegal aliens the aspiration to become an American is dramatically missing.

Nebraska, whose Hispanic population grew by 70 percent between 2000-2004, is a strange place for Bush to tout the glories of illegal aliens.

According to Bush they are:

"People who are willing to work hard to put food on the table for their families and to realize a dream."

Some, no doubt, are hard workers and family oriented. But not enough of the alien population fits that pattern to make a blanket statement that they’re all a plus to society.

A few points about Nebraska illegal aliens that Bush conveniently omitted from his speech:

Several generations of American workers made good wages with benefits in Nebraska’s leading industry—meatpacking—until illegal aliens displaced them for $9.00 an hour.

The CBS 60 Minutes special that focused on the Cargill Company in Schuyler, Nebraska, IDs Sold To Illegal Immigrants, documented the rampant identity fraud committed by aliens to get jobs. (Reviewed by VDARE.COM here) To Bush, apparently, buying false documents is all part of the illegal immigrants "dream."

The local post office poster showing photographs of Omaha’s seven most wanted criminals. Of the seven, three are Hispanic: Joab Garcia (narcotics); Juan M. Flores (murder) and Angel Alvarado-Cruz (sexual molestation of a child)

Next to the most wanted poster, the Nebraska State Most Wanted Sex Offender Registry where six names are Hispanic: Juan Carlos Crawford, Juan Garcia, Daniel Cruz-Gonzales, Jose Abraham Hernandez, Humberto Martinez, Luis Eduardo Picazo.

The botched 2002 bank robbery in Norfolk, NE perpetrated by four Mexicans that resulted in the deaths of five innocent bystanders.

Bush apparently can’t—or refuses to—read the Nebraska political tealeaves. Sell-out Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (referred to by Bush in his speech as a "leader" on immigration) voted for S. 2611. But he doesn’t have to face the voters in November. Moderate Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson, who is up for re-election and feels the Nebraska anti-immigration heat, voted no.

And in a recent GOP gubernatorial primary, Gov. Dave Heineman, who had vetoed a measure to grant out-of-state tuition to illegal aliens, defeated his rival and the most beloved man in Nebraska Congressman Tom Osborne who favored the tuition subsidy.

Bush is a stubborn, arrogant leader who has a mysterious agenda all of his own. Unfortunately for us, it includes amnesty for illegal aliens.

With social security privatization ancient history and the Iraqi war bumbling forward endlessly, what does Bush have left except his delusions about illegal aliens?

So far, we’re winning our fight against Bush—by virtue of not losing it—and his amnesty forces.

But with Bush, our guard must constantly be up.

Joe Guzzardi [email him], an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.