US president opposes proposal: Citizenship for illegal immigrants
WASHINGTON, April 8: US President George Bush on Saturday expressed his opposition to granting automatic citizenship to those who had crossed the US border illegally after a Republican-sponsored immigration reform plan collapsed in the US Senate.
“We must ensure that those who break our laws are not granted an automatic path to citizenship,” Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address.
The comment appears to place Mr Bush at odds with two key proposals considered by the Senate over the past weeks, which offer legalisation – and eventual citizenship — to all or most of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
Under a measure introduced by Democrat Edward Kennedy and Republican John McCain, the undocumented workers already in the country would have been allowed to apply for temporary legal status for six years, pay a $2,000 fine, and apply for citizenship following a background check and an English language test.
When it became apparent that this proposal would fail, Republican Senators Chuck Hagel and Mel Martinez came up with a compromise that divides all illegals into three categories.
Under their plan, those who have been in the United States for five or more years would qualify for a work visa and later citizenship. Those with less than two years of residency would be asked to leave while the rest would be able to participate in a future guest worker program.
The Hagel-Martinez compromise collapsed amid bitter recrimination on Friday after Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid moved to drastically limit the number of amendments allowed to the floor, and then supporters of the measure failed to muster the votes to cut off debate.
The president has not formally endorsed either of the bills.
But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Mr Bush was convinced that those who had crossed into the country illegally, have broken the law.
“We have said it for a while ... that he (Mr Bush) believes that people who have gone into the country illegally should not have an automatic path to citizenship,” Ms Perino said.
She said the president believed that the estimated 11 million illegal aliens currently in the country ‘would need to get in line behind people’ waiting to settle in the United States lawfully.
But Ms Perino stopped short of saying Mr Bush would demand that illegal immigrants return to their home countries, saying ‘those details are being worked out’.
In his address, Mr Bush also said that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would be unfair to those who obey the law.
The most recent opinion poll on the subject, conducted by Fox News and Opinion Dynamics, showed that 81 per cent of Americans believe it would be unfair to grant rights to illegal aliens while thousands of people wait each year to come to the United States legally.
But Mr Bush and members of Congress are also under pressure from the increasingly powerful Latino community, which played a crucial role in the president’s re-election in 2004 but may now defect, many Republicans fear, because of the impasse on immigration.
Joining the blame game, the president placed the responsibility for the stalemate squarely on the shoulders on Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid because of his stance on amendments.
“I call on the Senate minority leader to end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and pass a fair, effective immigration reform bill,” Mr Bush said. —AFP
