President Bush on Thursday said illegal immigrants cannot be stopped by walls or guards and called conservatives “wrong and unrealistic” in accusing him of favoring amnesty for aliens.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Bush called on the House to compromise with the Senate on immigration reform legislation. The House favors tougher border security, while the Senate wants to grant illegal immigrants legal status as guest workers.
“Some members of Congress argue that no one who came to this country illegally should be allowed to continue living and working in our country, and that any plan to allow them to stay equals amnesty, no matter how many conditions we impose,” Bush said.
“The approach they suggest is wrong and unrealistic,” he said. “There’s a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program that requires every illegal immigrant to leave.”
Bush’s speech drew praise from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who called immigration reform “the most important bill the Congress will vote on this year.”
“The president is right on the mark,” he said. “Real reform must include a provide a path to citizenship for those who are already here.”
In an effort to placate House conservatives, Bush said he was adding manpower and fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. But he also acknowledged that such steps cannot solve the problem.
“We can have a lot of patrols and a lot of walls and it’s not going to stop that flow,” he said. “It’ll puta dent in it, but if the job is to secure this border, it seems like to me we’ve got to stop the number of people who are trying to sneak across in the first place.”
He said that can be accomplished only through a guest-worker program, which would obviate the need for many Mexicans to sneak across the border.
Bush also vowed to increase punishment for employers who hire illegal immigrants without due diligence.
“Today the fine for a business that fails to check an employee’s ID can be as low as $100,” he said. “You might as well pay a speeding ticket.”
The remark came less than a week after Bush’s spokesman, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, angered some House Republicans by comparing illegal immigration to speeding.
