NRO: "I suspect that Bush’s amnesty does not include a 23-year queue"...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

May 16, 2006, 6:00 a.m.

Meet El Presidente
Bush on the border.

By An NRO Symposium

Editor's note: On Monday night, President George W. Bush delivered a primetime address on immigration. National Review Online gathered a group of experts to react to it. Read their analysis below.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTQ5ZGRmZDIyZDBhMDI2MTAxN2Q3NzU0ZjBhYWE5NDI=

George Borjas

President Bush has a huge disadvantage when talking about immigration reform: He is not credible. He spent more than half his time discussing border enforcement, a subject that has not interested him before. Perhaps at the next press conference someone will ask why he did not take the meager steps outlined last night soon after 9/11.

He added a new rationale for a guest-worker program. Not only does Bush buy into the idea that guest-workers do jobs that “Americans are not doing,” he also believes that guest-workers are needed because the increased border enforcement and the new-and-improved employer sanctions cannot stem the tide of illegal immigration. How’s that for declaring defeat before the battle begins? Notably, President Bush skipped the part about how “temporary” guest-workers typically become permanent immigrants.

Finally, the president returned to the amnesty proposal that has obsessed him since the summer of 2001. But the illegals being granted relief will have to “wait in line behind those who play by the rules.” As of last night, some Filipinos have been waiting since November 1, 1983. Somehow, I suspect that Bush’s amnesty does not include a 23-year queue. In short, an untrustworthy and depressing sales pitch.

—George Borjas is Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard.

[autorank]

1. "...he's not crecible." That about says it all. At 1st, I thought this

was his own self granted amnesty. I'm sure that's on the list too;)