Powell: Bush will join Fox in opposing interests of American people

Powell: Bush Wants Legal Status for Millions of Illegal Aliens

The honeymoon is officially over, fellow conservatives, it is time to lay off the Democrats and direct our rhetorical fire back at the administration we just re-elected. Polls consistently show that by a very large margin, much larger than Bush's margin over Kerry, Americans want control of immigration and control of borders.

We conservatives have been burned by one of our own. Ronald Reagan put his considerable influence behind a plan to regularize the status of millions of illegal aliens already here with a pledge to get control of the borders. The law-breakers got their amnesty, but we never took control of our borders.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

This time, let's tell our president and the congress, get control of our borders first, then we can talk about an immigration reform program.

Those who speak of amnesty now (and I include President Bush and Secretary Powell, whatever euphemisms cloak the administration proposal it is an amnesty) know full well from the experience of the Reagan amnesty that it will only encourage more people to come here illegally to be in position for the next amnesty.

Is the GOP afraid that some of it's upper middle class constituents will be upset that they might lose their low-paid maids, gardeners and pool boys? It's time for our party to stand up for the American workers whose wages and benefits are constantly being eroded by competition from illegal immigrants. This is especially tragic in our minority communities where unemployment rates for young single men - the people most directly competing with illegal immigrant labor - seems perpetually stuck at double-digit rates. If the Republicans were serious about seeking minority votes, they would pay more attention to minority employment - it's good politics and, what is more, it's the right thing to do.