Kerry lambastes Bush, GOP-backed immigration bill

April 07. 2006 3:27PM

Kerry lambastes Bush, GOP-backed immigration bill

By BETH FOUHY
AP Political Writer


A defiant Sen. John Kerry on Friday lashed out against President Bush and his team of advisers, calling them "the Katrina Administration" and "the most incompetent people I've ever seen."

The Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential nominee also suggested Republicans hope to scuttle comprehensive immigration legislation pending in the U.S. Senate in order to prevent immigrants from becoming voters.

Kerry made the remarks via teleconference at a breakfast gathering of the National Action Network, an advocacy group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who competed against Kerry in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. Kerry had been expected to attend the breakfast in person but canceled because of votes on the immigration legislation in Washington.

Kerry criticized a bill passed in the U.S. House late last year that would criminalize illegal immigrants and those who offer them assistance, echoing controversial comments made last month by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said the legislation would penalize "even Jesus himself."

"Jesus reached out to the poor, the sick, the prisoners and the lame," Kerry said. "The notion that people in the church who help people who are here illegally would somehow be criminalized would be to say they can't even walk in the footsteps of the teachings of the Scriptures."

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