President Bush Discusses Immigration
July 8th, 2006
From the other day... July 5th, 2006... The president visited a Duncan Donuts to make some great points about how diversity makes our country strong.I sure wish he would also find an agriculture operation in which he could visit and also make the point that the "guest worker" program and immigration reform is crucial to agriculture in our country.
Please see my May 31st, 2006 Tentacle column: "The Great Mexican Maginot Line."
I wholeheartedly support the president's position on immigration.
From the White House web site:
President Bush Discusses Immigration in Alexandria, Virginia
Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins
Alexandria, Virginia
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 5, 2006
Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins
Alexandria, Virginia
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 5, 2006
Fact Sheet: Basic Pilot: A Clear and Reliable Way to Verify Employment Eligibility In Focus: Immigration 
THE PRESIDENT: I just had a really interesting conversation. First of all, this business is owned by two Iranian American brothers. They are small business owners, they are entrepreneurs, they are employing people. And then I met with the district manager, who works with the two Iranian American brothers, happens to be a Guatemalan American citizen. She is learning business. She is taking on additional responsibility. Then I talked to the store manager, who was a Salvadoran American.
These people remind me that one of the great features of our country is that people are able to come here and realize dreams. One of the problems we have because our economy is strong is that small business owners have trouble finding workers. People come here to work.And one of the things we've got to do is to make sure that they have a verification plan that will enable them to determine, as they hire new workers, whether or not the workers are here illegally. See, it's against the law to hire somebody who is here illegally. And we intend to enforce that law. Part of a comprehensive immigration plan is to give employers the tools necessary to determine whether or not the workers they're looking for are here legally in America. And we've got such a plan -- Basic Pilot, it's called. It's working.
Please read the rest of the White House piece here. Also, be sure to watch the video.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org
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Hi Kevin! I went ahead and looked at the Maginot Line article, and am entirely sympathetic with your concerns.
ReplyDeleteOverlooked too often, IMO, is the question of Why? Why is Mexico a basket case?
At the end of the Korean War, the Republic of Korea was a basket case. It had an extremely violent lunatic on its northern border and no land border with anyone else. It is not on the low end of rich, and getting richer daily.
Mexico has not been invaded in 150 years. Its northern neighbor is extremely wealthy and has a large consumer class. It has better weather for tourism than the more frigid mountainous ROK, a more diverse resource base for food, metals, and minerals, ports on two major shipping routes or arenas. Oh yeah, cuisine that is better known world-wide and that appeals to broader tastes (promoting exports and tourism.)
Why is Mexico a basket case in 2006?
Replace Mexico with Estonia, Slovakia, etc. and the questions continues to vex the observer.