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Message from the Ambassador of the United States
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“And so here's my position,
and that is that if there is someone who will do a job an American won't do,
then that person ought to be given a temporary worker card to work in the
United States for a set period of time.” President George W. Bush. Excerpts
of President Bush’s remarks on immigration reform and border security,
delivered at the University of Kansas on January 23, 2006: Question: Mr. President -- (speaking Spanish.) …the question I have for
you is what are you doing in the borders? We try to secure the United States
for terrorism, I know. So we're trying to secure the borders, but, as well,
some of us of who are Hispanics and professional sometimes are denied the
opportunity to work and advance in the workplace because we are minorities THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I got the question. Immigration. First of all, bienvenidos. And we have an obligation in this country to
enforce our borders. And there's huge pressure on our borders. We've got a
long border, obviously, with Mexico, and a long border with Canada. And the
biggest, most problematic area right now is the border with Mexico --
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The issue is not only Mexican citizens who are coming across the border
illegally, but it's other citizens who are coming across the border. And our
obligation is to use a wise strategy to shut down the trafficking of anything
illegal across the border. We're a country of law, and we must enforce the
border. And we spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. analyzing the border issues,
and strategizing with Congress about how to do a better job including the
following things: One, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents; two,
increasing the use of technology on the border, so that you can see people
coming through drones, for example, and then be able to rally the Border
Patrol to stop people from coming across. Some physical barriers, particularly in urban centers, are now being
constructed. Some berms -- there's parts of our border, where, literally, you
can just drive across and there's nothing. You know, it's just nothing --
land, and in you come. And it's hard -- the demarcation zone is different,
and it makes it hard for people to enforce the border. Secondly, when we detain somebody at the border, we've got to have a rational
policy to help back up the people we're paying to enforce the border. And by
that I mean if you're somebody from Central America, for example, caught
coming into our country that the policy has been to give you a notification
to report back to a judge, and they'll hear your case. Well, guess what? A
lot of them don't come back. They're here because they're trying to better
their lives, and they're going to move into our society as best as they can.
And they're not going to return back. So we're ending what's called
"catch and release," and we're beginning to provide more detention
space for our Border Patrol to be able to say to people -- particularly from
Central America and South America -- you've come illegally, we're sending you
back home. Thirdly, in terms of workers. We do have H1, H2B visa programs that we're
constantly analyzing with the United States Congress. It makes sense that
highly skilled workers, for example, be given work permits here in the United
States if it helps us meet an economic objective. But I feel strongly that we
need to take the worker program a step further, and I'll tell you why. I'm
mindful that most people come here to work. There are a lot of people in your
state dependent upon people coming here to work. I tell you I used to say that -- when I was governor of Texas, family
values didn't stop at the Rio Grande River. And people if they could make 50
cents and had mouths to feed or $5 and had mouths to feed, a lot of people
would come to try find that $5 work. And so here's my position, and that is that if there is someone who will do a job an American won't
do, then that person ought to be given a temporary worker card to work in the
United States for a set period of time. I do not believe that any guest worker program ought to contain amnesty,
because I believe that if you granted amnesty to the people here working now
that that would cause another 8 million people or so to come here. I do
believe, however, it is humane to say to a person, you're doing a job somebody
else won't do, here is a temporary card to enable you to do the card [sic]. The length of stay here will be dependent upon the actions of the
Congress. It's conceivable you could have a three-year period with a renewal
period. I've thought a lot about this issue, I just want you to know. And by
the way, when you mention guest worker, a lot of people automatically spring
to amnesty, all I want to do is grant legal status. That's just not the case.
I don't believe we ought to do that. But I do believe we ought to recognize
there are people doing work others won't do. And there's a lot of good employers here in Kansas employing these
people, and the employers don't know whether or not somebody is here legally
or not. Because what's happened is a whole kind of industry has sprung up
around people coming here. And it's inhumane. It's inhumane for the people
being trafficked into the United States, and it's not fair to employers who
may be breaking the law. And here's what I mean -- you've got people being smuggled into the
United States of America by these criminal networks. They're called coyotes
-- coyotes. And they're bringing them in, in the back of 18-wheelers,
stuffing human beings to come and do work in America that Americans won't do
-- in the back of 18-wheelers. You've got a whole forgery industry up and
running, you know? And so these guys show up with documents that -- so the
employer says, well, you look legal to me. They don't know whether they're
legal or not legal. And I know that we've got a lot of our Border Patrol agents trying to
catch people sneaking in the country. And so it seems like to me that why
don't we recognize reality, give people workers cards on a temporary basis so
somebody can come back and forth legally, with tamper-proof card that will
enable an employer to know whether or not they're hiring somebody who is
illegal. And if we catch employers after that hiring somebody illegal,
there's got to be a fine and a consequence. And so a compassionate way to enforce our border is to give people a
temporary worker card without granting amnesty. That's a long answer to a
very important problem that is -- now is the time for the United States to
take it on squarely, in a humane way, that recognizes the situation and deals
with it in an up-front way. And I want to thank you for the question. To see the
complete text of President Bush’s remarks at the University of Kansas, please
click on the following link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060123-4.html If
you would like more information about the events mentioned in this letter or
other Embassy initiatives, please visit the Public Affairs
section of our website located at http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/epress05.html. Please feel free to email us at EmbajadorGarza@state.gov if you are not interested in receiving future updates. * * * * * |
