- I am sending only one email out today and this is it.
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- We lost our beloved United States of America yesterday.
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- The blow was rendered by President George W. Bush.
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- "All that's necessary for the forces of evil to
win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing." -- Edmund
Burke
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- US Constitution, Article II, Section 1
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- Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall
take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States."
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- Here Is The Text Of The Bush Traitorous 'Immigration
Reform' Speech
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- PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you all for coming. Thanks
for coming. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for joining me as I make
this important announcement, an announcement that I believe will make America
a more compassionate, more humane and stronger country.
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- I appreciate members of my Cabinet who have joined me
today, starting with our secretary of state, Colin Powell.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- I'm honored that our attorney general, John Ashcroft,
has joined us.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- Secretary of Commerce Don Evans.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- Secretary Tom Ridge of the Department of Homeland Security,
I'm honored you're here.
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- El Embajador de Mexico Tony Garza.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- I thank all the other members of my administration who
joined us today. I appreciate the Members of Congress who've taken time
to come, Senator Larry Craig, Congressman Chris Cannon and Congressman
Jeff Flake.
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- I'm honored you all have joined us. Thank you for coming.
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- I appreciate the members of citizen groups who've joined
us today, chairman of the Hispanic Alliance For Progress, Mani Luhan (ph);
Gil Moreno, the president and CEO of the Association for the Advancement
of Mexican-Americans; Roberta Deposada, the president of the Latino Coalition;
and Hector Flores, the president of LULAC.
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- Thank you all for joining us.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- Many of you here today are Americans by choice, and you
have followed in the path of millions. And over the generations, we have
received energetic, ambitious, optimistic people from every part of the
world.
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- By tradition and conviction, our country is a welcoming
society. America is a stronger and better nation because of the hard work
and the faith and the entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants.
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- Every generation of immigrants has reaffirmed the wisdom
of remaining open to the talents and dreams of the world. And every generation
of immigrants has reaffirmed our ability to assimilate newcomers, which
is one of the defining strengths of America.
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- During one great period of immigration, between 1891
and 1920, our nation received some 18 million men, women and children from
other nations.
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- The hard work of these immigrants helped make our economy
the largest in the world. The children of immigrants put on the uniform
and helped to liberate the lands of their ancestors.
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- One of the primary reasons America became a great power
in the 20th century is because we welcomed the talent and the character
and the patriotism of immigrant families.
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- The contributions of immigrants to America continue.
About 14 percent of our nation's civilian workforce is foreign born. Most
begin their working lives in America by taking hard jobs and clocking long
hours in important industries. Many immigrants also start businesses, taking
the familiar path from hired labor to ownership.
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- As a Texan, I have known many immigrant families, mainly
from Mexico, and I've seen what they add to our country. They bring to
America the values of faith in God, love of family, hard work, and self-reliance;
the values that made us a great nation to begin with.
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- We've all seen those values in action through the service
and sacrifice of more than 35,000 foreign-born men and women currently
on active duty in the United States military. One of them is Master Gunnery
Sergeant Guadalupe Denogean, an immigrant from Mexico, who has served in
the Marine Corps for 25 years and counting.
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- Last year, I was honored and proud to witness Sergeant
Denogean take the oath of citizenship in a hospital where he was recovering
from wounds he received in Iraq.
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- I'm honored to be his commander in chief. I'm proud to
call him "fellow American."
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- As a nation that values immigration and depends on immigration,
we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud. Yet today
we do not.
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- Instead we see many employers turning to the illegal
labor market, we see millions of hardworking men and women condemned to
fear and insecurity in a massive, undocumented economy.
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- Illegal entry across our borders makes more difficult
the urgent task of securing the homeland. The system is not working. Our
nation needs an immigration system that serves the American economy and
reflects the American dream.
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- Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life
and economics: Some of the jobs being generated in America's growing economy
are jobs American citizens are not filling.
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- Yet these jobs represent a tremendous opportunity for
workers from abroad who want to work and to fulfill their duties as a husband
or a wife, a son or a daughter.
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- Their search for a better life is one of the most basic
desires of human beings. Many undocumented workers have walked mile after
mile, through the heat of the day and the cold of the night. Some have
risked their lives in dangerous desert border crossings or entrusted their
lives to the brutal rings of heartless human smugglers.
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- Workers who seek only to earn a living end up in the
shadows of American life, fearful, often abused and exploited.
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- When they're victimized by crimes they're afraid to call
the police or seek recourse in the legal system. They are cut off from
their families far away, fearing if they leave our country to visit relatives
back home they might never be able to return to their jobs.
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- The situation I described is wrong. It is not the American
way.
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- Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow
willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not
filling.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- We must make our immigration laws more rational and more
humane. And I believe we can do so without jeopardizing the livelihoods
of American citizens.
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- Our reforms should be guided by a few basic principles.
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- First, America must control its borders. Following the
attacks of September the 11th, 2001, this duty of the federal government
has become even more urgent, and we're fulfilling that duty.
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- For the first time in our history we have consolidated
all border agencies under one roof, to make sure they share information
and the work is more effective.
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- We're matching all visa applicants against an expanded
screening list to identify terrorists and criminals and immigration violators.
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- This month we have become using advanced technology to
better record and track aliens who enter our country and to make sure they
leave as scheduled.
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- We have deployed new gamma and X-ray systems to scan
cargo and containers and shipments at ports of entry to America.
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- We have significantly expanded the Border Patrol with
more than 1,000 new agents on the borders and 40 percent greater funding
over the last two years. We're working closely with the Canadian and Mexican
governments to increase border security.
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- America is acting on a basic belief: Our borders should
be open to legal travel and honest trade; our borders should be shut and
barred tight to criminals, to drug traders, drug traffickers and to criminals
and to terrorists.
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- Second, new immigration laws should serve the economic
needs of our country. If an American employer is offering a job that American
citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country
a person who will fill that job.
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- Third, we should not give unfair rewards to illegal immigrants
in the citizenship process or disadvantage those who came here lawfully
or hope to do so.
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- Fourth, new laws should provide incentives for temporary
foreign workers to return permanently to their home countries after their
period of work in the United States has expired.
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- Today I ask the Congress to join me in passing new immigration
laws that reflect these principles that meet America's economic needs and
live up to our highest ideals.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- I propose a new temporary worker program that will match
willing foreign workers with willing American employers when no Americans
can be found to fill the jobs.
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- This program will offer legal status as temporary workers
to the millions of undocumented men and women now employed in the United
States and to those in foreign countries who seek to participate in the
program and have been offered employment here.
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- This new system should be clear and efficient so employers
are able to find workers quickly and simply.
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- All who participate in the temporary worker program must
have a job or, if not living in the United States, a job offer. The legal
status granted by this program will last three years and will be renewable,
but it will have an end. Participants who do not remain employed, who do
not follow the rules of the program or who break a law will not be eligible
for continued participation and will be required to return to their home.
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- Under my proposal, employers have key responsibilities.
Employers who extend job offers must first make every reasonable effort
to find an American worker for the job at hand. Our government will develop
a quick and simple system for employers to search for American workers.
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- Employers must not hire undocumented aliens or temporary
workers whose legal status has expired. They must report to the government
the temporary workers they hire and who leave their employ so that we can
keep track of people in the program and better enforce our immigration
laws. There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties for
anyone -- for any employer violating these laws.
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- Undocumented workers now here will be required to pay
a one-time fee to register for the temporary worker program. Those who
seek to join the program from abroad and have complied with our immigration
laws will not have to pay any fee.
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- All participants will be issued a temporary worker card
that will allow them to travel back and forth between their home and the
United States without fear of being denied re-entry into our country.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- This program expects temporary workers to return permanently
to their home countries after their period of work in the United States
has expired, and there should be financial incentives for them to do so.
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- I will work with foreign governments on a plan to give
temporary workers credit when they enter their own nation's retirement
system for the time they have worked in America.
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- I also support making it easier for temporary workers
to contribute a portion of their earnings to tax-preferred savings accounts,
money they can collect as they return to their native countries. After
all, in many of these countries a small nest egg is what is necessary to
start their own business or buy some land for their family.
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- Some temporary workers will make the decision to pursue
American citizenship. Those who make this choice will be allowed to apply
in the normal way. They will not be given unfair advantage over people
who have followed legal procedures from the start.
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- I opposed amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the
automatic path to citizenship. Granting amnesty encourages the violation
of our laws and perpetuates illegal immigration.
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- America's a welcoming country, but citizenship must not
be the automatic reward for violating the laws of America.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- The citizenship line, however, is too long, and our current
limits on legal immigration are too low.
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- My administration will work with the Congress to increase
the annual number of green cards that can lead to citizenship.
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- Those willing to take the difficult path of citizenship,
the path of work and patience and assimilation, should be welcome in America,
like generations of immigrants before them.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- In the process of immigration reform, we must also set
high expectations for what new citizens should know. An understanding of
what it means to be an American is not a formality in the naturalization
process, it is essential to full participation in our democracy.
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- My administration will examine the standard of knowledge
in the current citizenship test. We must ensure that new citizens know
not only the facts of our history, but the ideals that have shaped our
history.
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- Every citizen of America has an obligation to learn the
values that make us one nation: liberty and civic responsibility, equality
under God, tolerance for others.
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- This new temporary worker program will bring more than
economic benefits to America. Our homeland will be more secure when we
can better account for those who enter our country.
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- Instead of the current situation, in which millions of
people are unknown, unknown to the law, law enforcement will face fewer
problems with undocumented workers, and will be better able to focus on
the true threats to our nation from criminals and terrorists.
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- And when temporary workers can travel legally and freely,
there will be more efficient management of our borders and more effective
enforcement against those who pose a true threat to our country.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- This new system will be more compassionate. Decent, hardworking
people will now be protected by labor laws, with the right to change jobs,
earn fair wages and enjoy the same working conditions that the law requires
for American workers.
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- Temporary workers will be able to establish their identities
by obtaining the legal documents that we all take for granted. And they
will be able to talk openly to authorities to report crimes when they're
harmed without the fear of being deported.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- The best way in the long run to reduce the pressures
that create illegal immigration in the first place is to expand economic
opportunity among the countries in our neighborhood. Real growth and real
hope in the nations of our hemisphere will lessen the flow of new immigrants
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- In a few days I will go to Mexico for the Special Summit
of the Americas, where we will discuss ways to advance free trade, and
to fight corruption, and encourage the reforms that lead to prosperity.
Real growth and real hope in the nations of our hemisphere will lessen
the flow of new immigrants to America when more citizens of other countries
are able to achieve their dreams at their own home.
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- (APPLAUSE)
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- Yet our country has always benefited from the dreams
that others have brought here. By working hard for a better life immigrants
contribute to the life of our nation.
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- The temporary worker program I am proposing today represents
the best tradition of our society, a society that honors the law and welcomes
the newcomer.
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- This plan will help return order and fairness to our
immigration system, and in so doing we will honor our values by showing
our respect for those who work hard and share in the ideals of America.
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- May God bless you all.
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