May 16, 2006
5 Steps to Comprehensive Reform
Last night President Bush offered our country a middle ground on the road to immigration reform; a path that recognizes the need for both legal enforcement and gracious hospitality. In an attempt to inspire, inform and lead the country in the direction of this policy he laid out 5 steps or objectives to correct the immigration problem.
Address By The President To The Nation On Immigration Reform
We're a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We're also a nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition, which has strengthened our country in so many ways. These are not contradictory goals. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time.
First, the United States must secure its borders...The border should be open to trade and lawful immigration, and shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists.
Second, to secure our border, we must create a temporary worker program…To secure the border effectively, we must reduce the numbers of people trying to sneak across.
Third, we need to hold employers to account for the workers they hire…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. Amnesty would be unfair to those who are here lawfully, and it would invite further waves of illegal immigration.
Fifth, we must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples…When immigrants assimilate and advance in our society, they realize their dreams, they renew our spirit, and they add to the unity of America.
Critiques may not have been won over by this plan, but it calls for a great deal of compromise on both sides. It recognizes that the problems we face are of vital interest to our national security, our economy, our moral obligations and our sovereignty. It has been said that this problem wasn’t created over night and nor will it be fixed over night by any single solution. It will take a comprehensive effort dealing with the issue in its totality and time to be resolved. Critiques on both sides would do well to remember that.
UPDATE:
I'm glad to read that President Bush is backing off the notion of amnesty. And you're right, compromise is essential. I remember when I was in high school ten years ago and a local high school had to do their announcements in both English and Spanish--needless to say this problem has been growing for over a decade and will not be solved quickly.
I wonder how we can ensure that we remain a MELTING pot and that these individuals assimilate. The notion that someone can be a citizen or essentially a permanent resident and not speak English just blows my mind and scares me too. Just as a practical matter, how do make sure that non-English speaking, uneducated people become productive and functioning members of our society? Do we accommodate them by having special (ESOL) teachers for their children and sending home every form in both English and Spanish (that is how my niece's kindergarten teacher has to do it)? Should our banks and every other service provider offer English and Spanish operators? Obviously a lot of non-English speaking people are here, and we can't ignore that but there is something fundamentally wrong with treating another language as a second official language of America (a look at history shows us that dual language societies don't have much success). And while some Hispanics I know desire to learn English, I'm always surprised by how many are not interested in doing so. They have Spanish radio and television and friends and churches, so they are content not to know the language. That's not "melting."
Posted by: Ally at May 18, 2006 11:26 AMI’m not entirely convinced that President Bush was ever offering amnesty. I always heard him say, “this is not amnesty” and then all the political pundits would jump in and say it was. Between the two – honestly I’m more apt to believe the President.
I agree that learning English should be a requirement for US citizenship. It is part of the melting process as you become a part of our culture. In order to drive our roads, in order to participate in our economic prosperity, in order to get properly educated in our schools and to read, understand and fully appreciate the Constitution of this country – one needs to be able to understand the language that ties us all together. That’s melting – that’s unity without uniformity – not oppression. Thanks for your thoughts Ally.
Posted by: Jeff Price at May 18, 2006 02:15 PM