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Bush Rules Out Blanket Amnesty for Immigrants

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Mon Dec 15, 2003 at 11:31:41 PM EST
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President Bush announced yesterday there will be no blanket amnesty for immigrants. Instead he supports a system that matches willing employers with willing employees. This represents no change from his previous positions.

The president's comments come a week after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge expressed support for giving legal status to immigrants. In Miami, Mr. Ridge said: "The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

The last time blanket amnesty was granted was 1986. Republicans view that program as a failure. Here are the current major Republican proposals:

...top Republican lawmakers are proposing legislation that would impose a $1,500 fine on illegal immigrants before they were granted legal residency in the United States. Those illegal entrants also would have to line up behind workers who entered the United States under a guest-worker program as they sought legal residency.

Another piece of legislation known as the DREAM Act would give legal and permanent status to tens of thousands of children of undocumented immigrants. The bill, whose name is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, was sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican. It recently passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting a full vote by the Senate.

In September, Democratic and Republican lawmakers jointly proposed legislation that would allow 500,000 undocumented farm workers to become legal U.S. residents. The bill is awaiting a vote in the Judiciary Committee.

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