I get that there are many who oppose any sort of plan that would ever make it okay to emigrate illegally to the US. Some just get hung up on the word illegal. Some want to make it a story about national security (although, of course, that's a fallacious argument, since the worries about terrorists should have much more to do with unprotected borders than plans which allow those already here to become citizens).
And then there's the rest. The ones who have to attack people for waving the Mexican flag. The ones who have to attack people for not bothering to learn English, despite there being no national language. The ones who tell the immigrants that they are expected to come and learn our culture, not force us to adapt to theirs.
The racists. The bigots. The Republicans.
House Conservatives Blast Immigration Bill
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent Thu Mar 30, 8:30 PM ET
WASHINGTON - House conservatives criticized President Bush, accused the Senate of fouling the air, said prisoners rather than illegal farm workers should pick America's crops and denounced the use of Mexican flags by protesters Thursday in a vehement attack on legislation to liberalize U.S. immigration laws.
"I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (news, bio, voting record) of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.
"Anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter A," said Rep. Steve King (news, bio, voting record) of Iowa, referring to a guest worker provision in the Senate measure.
Their news conference took place across the Capitol from the Senate, where supporters and critics of the legislation seemed determined to heed admonitions from both Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to conduct a dignified, civilized debate.
The House has passed legislation to tighten border security, while the Senate approach also includes provisions to regulate the flow of temporary workers into the country and control the legal fate of millions of illegal immigrants already here. Bush has broadly endorsed the Senate approach, saying he wants a comprehensive bill.
...
"I don't think he's concerned about alienating voters, he's not running for re-election," said Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. He said Republicans could lose the House and Senate over the immigration issue, and he said of the president: "I wish he'd think about the party and of course I also wish he'd think about the country."
That's my favorite part, btw, and a clearer statement of how Republicans think of America may not have been made. I wish he'd think about the party comes first, and oh yeah, the country would be nice, too. But it's about the party.
Anyway, continuing with the racism.
Referring to a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks, Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia said, "I say if you are here illegally and want to fly the Mexican flag, go to Mexico and wave the American flag."
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona and others said Republicans would pay a price in the midterm elections if they vote for anything like the Senate legislation. "Many of those who have stood for the Republican Party for the last decade are not only angry. They will be absent in November," he said.
Sorry, another aside. Please stay home. But keep those mikes open if you're going to continue to say things like this.
Rohrabacher said Americans should be able to "smell the foul odor that's coming out of the U.S. Senate."
Asked a few moments later whether the same odor was emanating from the president, he said, "I have no comment."
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I am kind of enjoying the immigration "debate" purely for the theater of it.
It's actually refreshing to me to see semi-closeted racists come out in the light, take their hoods off, and say for the Congressional Record which will last forever that they are sputtering, hate-filled bigots and xenophobes.
It's also fantastically stupid politics. While the illegal immigrants obviously can't vote, their families and friends who are legal sure can. And they are going to remember these newly unhooded Klansmen come November.
Heck, there are those who want to get rid of the provision that children born in the US are citizens, regardless of the citizenship of the parents. Hmm, nothing like removing what has been, for years and years, one of the hallmarks of the American Dream - the ability of parents to give their kids a better life. How many people have come into this country knowing that they'd be here illegally, and probably hurting themselves personally, but they'd give their kids a chance to be citizens of what appears to be a great country? Eh, screw em - they're brownish.
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