Bush Plan Would Give Illegal Aliens Incentives To Register With Government
The Washington Times reports that "millions of illegal aliens" in the United States would be free from arrest and deportation, have access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits, and get unrestricted travel to and from their home countries under President Bush's guest-worker program." According to previously undisclosed details of the President's plan, "which some critics have described as a limited amnesty," the proposal "offers numerous 'incentives' for the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens to come 'out of the shadows,' Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, the nation's border and transportation security czar, told a Senate panel. Mr. Hutchinson, in a written response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Bush plan would help eliminate sleepless nights for illegal aliens worried that a simple misstep, such as a traffic ticket or accident, 'could result in bringing them to the attention of federal authorities and their subsequent deportation.'"
Immigration, Gay Marriage Most Contentious Issues Facing GOP Platform Drafters.
According to the Washington Times, immigration and "homosexual 'marriage' are shaping up to be the most contentious issues facing Republican platform writers in the weeks before the party's national convention, convention officials said. Just as Sen. John Kerry's campaign kept the Democrats' platform negotiations low profile in order to convey a message of party unity during the Democratic convention, the Bush campaign seeks to project an image of consensus at its convention, which begins Aug. 30 in New York. Also as the Kerry campaign did, the president's team is managing the work of the platform committee from behind the scenes." The Times notes that "one Republican who is close to the platform process but asked not to be identified said Bush representatives working with the platform writers 'will try to prevent extremism in language on gay rights by some evangelical groups and on immigration by some of our conservatives.'"
