Bush Finally Enforces Immigration Laws

by Steve

In a curious response to the collapse of efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration reform plan, Bush decides to finally implement the laws on the books and do what he should have been doing from Day One. Aside from building a fence along the border and hiring more border patrol agents after Bush cut them from the budget two years ago, he retaliates against conservatives in his own party by making things tougher on employers, in large part by following the laws already on the books.

It’s a valid question why after seven years the Bush Administration is just now:

1. Forcing employers to fire employees who use false Social Security numbers;

2. Fully implementing a 1996 law on an exit-control system;

3. Forcing employers to comply with a 1986 law requiring eligibility verification from job applicants;

4. Stepping up the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrant street gang members;

5. Using federal agents across the country to hunt down “alien fugitives;”

6. Expanding its training of local law enforcement on immigration laws.

Supporting comprehensive immigration reform and an earned citizenship program is not mutually exclusive of supporting the enforcement of laws already on the books, unless apparently if you are the Bush Administration.