بشــرى ســارة للمقيمين غيـر الشــرعيين فى أمريكا

Bush seeks shift on immigration
Would give break to illegal workers
By Wayne Washington, Globe Staff, 1/7/2004

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will call for sweeping immigration changes today that would allow the roughly eight million undocumented workers in the United States to remain in the country if they have a job and apply for a guest worker card, senior administration officials said yesterday.

The move, which has broad political implications, would be a major victory for Latino leaders, who have called for some sort of amnesty program for many years. Many in the president's own Republican Party, however, have decried amnesty proposals as rewarding illegal behavior.

Several different versions of guest worker bills are under consideration by Congress, and leaders have been eagerly awaiting Bush's proposal. But its fate in an election year is far from certain, especially with both parties vying for the growing Latino vote.

The president's plan, which the White House does not call amnesty, would allow undocumented workers to stay in the country for a three-year period that could be renewed. Administration officials have not determined how many times it could be renewed. Participants in the guest worker program would be allowed to travel freely between their home country and the United States.

Dependents of the undocumented workers could come to the United States with their relatives if they can demonstrate a capacity to support them, the senior officials said.

"This is a new initiative to an old problem," a senior official said.

The White House program, which borrows from bills proposed by Republican senators John McCain of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, would be open to undocumented workers currently in the United States, as well as citizens of other nations who choose to come here. Participants would enjoy the same basic rights as American workers: They must be paid no less than the minimum wage, and their employers would have to provide the same health and safety precautions they do for citizens.

Administration officials say the program does not amount to amnesty for illegal immigrants because there is no link between participation and a permanent resident green card, which allows holders to become citizens after five years.

Still, guest worker participants could apply for a green card, but the wait, administration officials said, would probably be longer than the program's three-year period.

Undocumented workers in the United States will be required to pay a so-far undetermined registration fee; applicants in other countries will not have to pay. Guest workers would pay federal taxes, administration officials said. Some of that money would be returned to them once they go back to their home countries.

In addition to the creation of this guest worker program, administration officials said, the president also wants to see a "reasonable increase" in the 140,000 green cards issued each year.

Bush's call for an overhaul of immigration is the first move in what is sure to be an aggressive and consistent effort to appeal to the nation's eight million Latino voters, an increasingly potent voting bloc whose growing numbers in many swing states could hold the key to this year's election.

Each of the Democratic candidates running for president has unveiled a plan to allow illegal immigrants to remain as guest workers.

Bush's call for an overhaul of immigration is occurring in advance of Monday's meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, with that country's president, Vicente Fox, who has pushed hard to have the United States offer some type of amnesty or forgiveness to Mexicans who crossed the border illegally but who have been law-abiding and hard-working since their arrival.

A call for an overhaul also gives the president, who speaks some Spanish, an important opportunity to demonstrate to Latino voters that he shares their concern about the plight of people who risk their lives to enter this country and work in jobs few Americans want.

In a wide range of states -- such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, and California -- that concern could bring Bush support in a presidential race his aides expect to be very close.

Immigrant advocates told reporters that Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, shaped the content and timing of the president's message. Democrats, mindful of the boost this could bring to Bush, are skeptical about his motives and timing.

"I certainly hope the administration's long-awaited reinvolvement in this fundamental debate is genuine and not because of election-year conversion," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who worked extensively on the issue.

Representative Ciro D. Rodriguez, the Texas Democrat who is chairman of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, said he is skeptical, too.

"He hasn't done a darn thing on immigration reform from the beginning," he said. "Of course we're skeptical."

More than a third of Latino voters who cast ballots in the 2000 election voted for Bush, a level of support that dwarfed the 21 percent the previous Republican nominee, Bob Dole, received in 1996. Republicans have made it clear that boosting their support among Latino voters is key.

"The Republicans realize they cannot remain a competitive governing party if they do not appeal to a significant number of Hispanic voters," said Daniel T. Griswold, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Griswold said Hispanics are also important parts of the electorate in the South, where Bush is popular, and in the manufacturing Midwest, where the president has struggled because of job losses.

Momentum for some type of immigration overhaul had been building in the months before Sept. 11, 2001. Fox had urged the United States to change its immigration laws in speeches given at the White House and before a joint session of Congress less than a week before the terrorist attacks. Immigrant advocates met with White House officials on Sept. 10, 2001, to discuss how immigration laws could be changed. But the devastating attacks abruptly shifted the focus of the Bush administration from easing immigration rules to making sure terrorists could cross the porous US borders.

"The demographic handwriting is on the wall," Griswold said. "Hispanics are now the nation's largest minority group. They're going to remain so whether immigration laws are changed or not. But it makes practical and political sense to do so."