President Bush’s Immigration Remarks in the State of the Union Speech

As previewed on this blog yesterday, President Bush in his State of the Union Speech reiterated a call for comprehensive immigration reform that he said would create more secure borders and a guest worker program “without animosity and without amnesty.” But critics — including some in his own party like Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo — lambasted the plan as a form of amnesty.

Here is what the President had to say about immigration:

Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America — with laws that are fair and borders that are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country. To secure our border, we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol — and funding new infrastructure and technology. (Watch Bush detail immigration initiative Immigration Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration system worthy of America — with laws that are fair and borders that are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country. To secure our border, we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol — and funding new infrastructure and technology.  Yet even with all these steps, we cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border — and that requires a temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result, they won’t have to try to sneak in — and that will leave border agents free to chase down drug smugglers, and criminals, and terrorists. We will enforce our immigration laws at the work site, and give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers — so there is no excuse left for violating the law. We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals. And we need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country — without animosity and without amnesty. Convictions run deep in this Capitol when it comes to immigration. Let us have a serious, civil, and conclusive debate — so that you can pass, and I can sign, comprehensive immigration reform into law.

Click here for the transcript on the CNN website, along with links to a video of the speech.

We will see what happens.  i was struck that, while the President endorsed immigration reform, he played on nationalist and somewhat anti-foreign themes in emphasizing the need to reduce U.S. reliance on “foreign oil” and emphasizing the dangers of terrorist threats from other countries.  My sense is that playing on such fears will make meaningful immigration reform politically more difficult.

KJ