Just hours after his spokesman railed against “ridiculous” spending by Democrats, President Bush said Monday he has enough goodwill with Congress to solve illegal immigration.
“I think the atmosphere up there is good right now,” Bush said of Capitol Hill during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. “I’ve been working to bring Republicans and Democrats together to resolve outstanding issues so that Congress can pass a comprehensive bill and I can sign it into law this year.”
Three hours earlier, Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters on Air Force One that recent Democratic legislation on the Iraq war contained “ridiculous” pork-barrel spending and “arbitrary timetables” for withdrawing U.S. forces. He said the legislation would “mandate a defeat” by leaving “our troops in the field without the money they
need.”
Yet Johndroe said tensions over the Iraq legislation would not hamper Bush’s call for the Democrat-controlled Congress to send him a comprehensive immigration bill.
“Yes, there are a lot of issues that there is disagreement on,” the spokesman said. “But we’re having productive conversations with members from both sides of the aisle in both houses about comprehensive immigration reform.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned she will not rally Democrats behind the legislation unless Bush lines up the support of 70 to 100 GOP House members. That is a tall order because many Republicans say Bush wants to grant amnesty to millions of undocumented Mexicans in the United States.
Bush insisted yesterday that granting legal status to illegal immigrants would not be amnesty because the lawbreakers would have to “pay their debt to society” through fines and other measures before obtaining citizenship.
“People who meet a reasonable number of conditions and pay a penalty of time and money should be able to apply for citizenship,” he said.
Read other stories by Bill Sammon
