bRight & Early

Jim Lynch May 15th, 2006 8:25 pm

I will be liveblogging the President’s speech on immigration tonight. Bookmark this post and come back at 8:00. TTLB has a special page listing those who are also liveblogging this event.

Pasages starting with >> are things I went back and filled in from the DVR.

Those in blockquotes are from the transcript at the White House website.

8:00 Watching the address on FNN. Excuse any typos. The President will be starting in about a minute.

8:02 He’s starting by saying that he will lay out his thoughts on this issue.

>>”Crowds have rallied in support those who are in our country illegally.” At least he acknowledges that.

>>”At our southern border others have organized to stop illegal immigrants from coming in.” Thank you Minute Men!

>>”For decades the United States has not been in control of it’s borders.” Uh, yeah.

>>”As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border — and millions have stayed.” Yup.

Forget the timestamps.

His initial thoughts on the problem are well inline with my own, and things I have posted here before. I notice first of all that he is using the term illegal immigrants, and not “Undocumented Workers”. Good.

He also mentions the problems of forged documents, strained resources, and increased crime.

>>”Many use forged documents to get jobs. And that makes it difficult for employers to verify the workers they hire are legal.” No, policies that don’t allow you to even ask if someone is legal make it not only difficult, but nearly impossible. That doesn’t negate the problem with forged documents, but law suits from the likes of the ACLU which try to undermine any attempt at verification are a big part of this problem.

“America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time.”

• Must Secure our borders (Guard beefing up the borders for up to one year — 6000) “Aprehend and detain?” How about deport instead. “Catch and Release is unacceptable, and we will end it.” That would be a dream come true.
  

  One way to help during this transition is to use the National Guard. So, in coordination with governors, up to 6,000 Guard members will be deployed to our southern border. The Border Patrol will remain in the lead. The Guard will assist the Border Patrol by operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building patrol roads, and providing training. Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities — that duty will be done by the Border Patrol. This initial commitment of Guard members would last for a period of one year.

  6000 National Guard troops to be morphed into 6000 additional border agents will not be enough by half.

  Another way to help during this period of transition is through state and local law enforcement in our border communities. So we’ll 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. State and local law enforcement officials are an important part of our border security and they need to be a part of our strategy to secure our borders.

  Again, this is all good, but I have serious doubts if it is enough.

• Temporary Worker Program — Here it comes? I can live with a TWP, as long as it’s not offered to the law breakers already here.
• Hold Workers to account. Replace the “green card” with a high tech version.
• The ones who are here. “This is amnesty and I oppose it.” Middle ground. This is where I part ways. Wait in line behind those who play by the rules, but not make them leave? I’ll need some details before I swallow that.

Mishmashing legal and illegal. That is the real problem with this whole debate.

I’ll try to go back and fill in some of the holes with the DVR.

OK. I’m going to fix something to eat before 24 starts. I will comeback to this at 10:20 OR we could solve two problems at once — put Jack Bauer in charge of securing the borders. However, under no circumstances should whoever is in charge of security at CTU allowed to have anything to do with it.

I’m exhausted. I’ll have more of my own reaction and that of others tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by.

• 24 , Blogs and blogging , Illegal Immigration , President Bush
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