Dean: GOP Will Use Immigration to Divide

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051203/ap_on_re_us/democrats_dean;_ylt=Akuvkd8mp_Jjv3B22dqhGAys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

"The collapse of the Republican confidence in the Republican leadership is not enough to elect Democratic leadership," Dean said. "We have stand up for what we believe."


Dean: GOP Will Use Immigration to Divide

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago

PHOENIX - Republicans plan to use the vast problems caused by illegal immigration to try and divide Americans voting in next year's midterm election,Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Saturday.

"Once again, the Republicans created problems so they think they can come in and solve them," Dean told DNC members meeting in Phoenix.

Thousands of illegal immigrants cross America's borders each year to work better-paying jobs. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 11 million illegal immigrants now live in the United States......

way to use something they don't even understand! The Shrub spoke on immigration last week, but all he had to say was "we'll build more fences." And it looks like he will use them as backdrops to his speeches that he gives in more and more isolation.
Immigration is a no win topic, no matter who initiates it until people come to grip with a lot of complex ideas.

is who gonna be owning America; WASPs or the dreaded OTHERS.

Simple.

180

sign me up.

:eyes:

.....The DNC chairman also criticized Bush for not working with Mexico to confront America's immigration problems. "Work with Mexico to improve economies in rural America and rural Mexico, and you will stop the flood of people wanting to come to America," Dean said.

Republican National Committee spokesman Tucker Bounds said Democrats are out of touch with voters on border security.

"Dean's blatant mischaracterization of Bush's agenda is his best effort to mask the Democrats' unmistakable lack of a plan and any connection with voters on issues that matter," Bounds said.

Dean said Democrats will appeal to voters on other issues by offering tax law changes that treats middle-class families fairly, health care for more Americans and plan for withdrawing troops from the war in
Iraq......

immigration is as divisive for the Republicans as it is for the Democrats. This is one wedge issue that will probably bite them on the ass.

2006 is the year of anti-immigration sentiment. The GOP is brushing this issue with such broad strokes that the racism element in their party is rearing its ugly head.

Several proposed bills by isolationist republican House members have already been introduced under the guise of border protection and supporting the nut cases in the Minutemen militia group. Count Texas Congressmen nut bags Lamar Smith and John Culberson as two of them. Smith was the congressman who faxed his immigration memo meant for Karl Rove, to a House Democrat by accident. In the memo he called liberals weak on immigration, and an area where the repukes could win votes. Scare their base, basically.

Bush is now running around the country harping on border security.

Sonia

We'd be meeting them at the border with martinis.

This is another racist platform. Another way for the GOP to proclaim it's the WHITE party without making anyone uncomfortable.

American jobs most in danger from illegal labor are lower skilled jobs that are held by Americans of all races.

If you want to argue that a fence will not work that's fine. But to stoop to using the race card is beneath you.

BTW, note Dean has pointed out Mexico (half of all illegals come from Mexico) needs to create more jobs in Mexico for Mexicans. This is a good step so long as American plants are not closed and replaced by new plants in Mexico.

They have been for the last several decades. The only way that changes is if the Mexican people decided to rebel against the feds in Mexico City. If anything, the Mexican government is more than tolerant of the status quo, and any changes they propose will be marginal.

the Swedish are not entering this country illegally. It is also BS that they are only taking jobs that Americans won't do and the Democratic party better figure this out or the Republicans will successfully ride into office on this issue. Whenever this subject is brought up on DU someone immediately accuses you of racism. This is an issue of people in the US taking advantage of cheap labor in order to depress wages in the US. Recently there were 125 illegals caught working on a Walmart construction project in PA, those are jobs that 1000's of people would be standing in line to have. I think the Democratic party should be arguing to make it a serious fine for hiring illegals.

Employers should be slapped with HUGE fines for mass hiring of illegals. A slap on the wrist is not acceptable. If Walmart had to pay 250,000 for every citation for hiring an illegal, they'd bloody well STOP.

I think both dems AND republican working people could get behind an initiative of this kind.

I'm gonna play " the race card , " because that is what it is.

x

I have nothing against legal immigration but these illegals are ruining the any chance at unionizing the service jobs, and they are one of the few types that can't be moved overseas.

Illegal immigration from Europe, especially Eastern Europe, and Asia is also a huge problem from the point of view of downward pressure on wages and benefits for working Americans.

skulking in suburban shrubbery photographing Romanians at Home Depots, or yahoo leaders out of a Jack London novel running for Congress on a platform of Hmong "swamping lifeboat Amerika."

It happens a lot in New York and our response is to try the new restaurants. We have asians and eastern Europeans out the wazoo here. Asians in Flushing and Bayside, Romanians in Astoria, and Russians in Brighton.

But not one Minuteman.

Anything illegal is a concern. But the Mexican border is a racial issue and you're letting the Republicans get away with it.

I repeat, if they were Swedish we wouldn't be saying a word.

distant relatives. I really like the country and my relatives are all seemingly smart and well-educated, including a university professor.

However, if 11 million Swedes, including my relatives, showed up and took jobs from people I know and their children, including construction and technical jobs, then I'd be darned unhappy, despite the blood ties and the admitted good looks of Swedish men (!).

The economic situation for middle to low-income Americans has been crap since the '70s, and so many decent paying jobs are gone. We can't have a fair and stable country unless everyone here has a good chance of supporting him or her self and some sense of stability in it.

Unless our economic situation improves in a way that seems long-term, I don't think that we can have mass immigration, legal or illegal, and I don't care if they come from Sweden, Paraguay or Nigeria.

seem to be doing a wonderful job dividing themselves over immigration.

What are they divided about specifically?

In talking with my brother, who's been a strong Dumbyass supporter until recently, he indicated that he'd "even vote for a Democrat if they did something about illegal immigration."

think the Mexicans will come here and steal their jobs and pollute the country. They are all border vigilante guard wannabes!

On the other hand, the wealthy Republicans I know all hate Bush because he has the economy running so poorly, but want him to allow Mexicans to easily cross the border so that their business's can skimp on their worker's pay and benefits.

It's a battle between the rich Republicans that pay the donations but are few in number, and the "social" or "southern" FReeper types that provide enough votes to keep the rich ones in power but lack the necessary financial or intellectual firepower to actually drive the party.

So they can divide people. My favorite is Bush's "Look at the mess I made. Now get me out of it". My second favorite is Bush's "Look at the mess I made. The Democrats don't have a plan".

And he has had it so easy with the corporate media backing him up.

"Guest Workers" so we go from 11 million illegals to 11 million guest workers..... :wtf: is the difference...

He's a major asshole.

that some cheap-labor-loving-elite will be held accountable for his illegal activities. Institutionalized slavery.

a backlash especially since the guest workers tend to be Turkish, North African (Muslim) or what used to be called Yugoslavian. The guest workers have to put up with terrible racism and discrimination based on ethnicity and national origin.

many points of view expressed in this thread, the immigration issue is just as Dean said--divisive.

snip>
Speaking at the fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee, Dean pledged that Democrats would offer tax policies aimed at middle-class voters, a plan to provide health insurance to all Americans, immigration proposals that offer a path to legalization for illegal immigrants, and defense policies that would protect the nation and expose the "hollow promises" of the Bush administration.

Dean warmly praised Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) for "standing up and telling the truth" about Bush's policies in Iraq, and suggested that the Pennsylvanian had offered a vision around which Democrats could rally. But Dean stopped well short of embracing Murtha's call for a withdrawal plan that would redeploy all U.S. troops within about six months. Instead Dean called on Democrats to coalesce around a proposal that would keep some U.S. forces in Iraq for two more years.

The former Vermont governor's remarks underscored the party's continuing debate over Iraq and the reluctance of many party leaders to support Murtha's call for a speedy withdrawal strategy. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) announced her support for Murtha's plan last week, but others in the party leadership have declined to do so, in part out of fears that a swift withdrawal could leave Iraq worse off than it is today and hand the GOP a political weapon.

Dean came to national prominence in 2003 by opposing Bush's decision to invade Iraq and has spoken for the party's antiwar grass-roots activists. But in his speech he blended strong criticism of the president for going to war under false pretenses with a more measured endorsement of a plan promoted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, which would redeploy about 80,000 U.S. troops from Iraq in 2006 and the remainder by the end of 2007.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300821.html

comment on immigration. Remember during the election when we all sent suggestions for Kerry's campaign. If Dean is smart, he should get us all working on this thing now.

Personally, I think we should require that illegal immigrants return to their country and then apply for the guest worker program. Anyone caught working without papers must be returned immediately. Set up an agency that does nothing but coordinate between employers and willing workers. Assign sufficient immigration personnel to do background checks on potential employees and strealine the process so that there is not a huge backload. Assess huge fines on employers who are caught using illegals and funnel that money DIRECTLY back into the program.