Immigration Reform Advocate: Some Amnesty Supporters Currying Bush's Favor
by Chad Groening
March 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - An immigration reform group is concerned that a number of Republican congressmen are willing to support President George W. Bush's so-called "Guest Worker Program" because they hope to be a part of the Bush team someday.Immigration Reform activists believe President Bush will have no trouble getting his program through the Senate. However, the House Immigration Reform Caucus, led by Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, hopes to get enough votes to block the bill in the House of Representatives.
Susan Tully is midwest field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. She is afraid many Republican lawmakers have gone over to Bush's side. "You see people who are looking at their future in the Republican policy [and hoping to become] part of some Bush team at some level, and they've bought into the president's plan," she says.
Tully feels the president has lawmakers mesmerized, and she fears as a result that, despite the will of the vast majority of the American people, many in Congress will support this plan that offers amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. "These are people who used to be on immigration reform's side of the issues, and we can't even get them to talk about this now," she says.
Tully believes many GOP members are looking at the possibility of being appointed to the Bush Administration, and therefore have abandoned their immigration reform stances to support the president. "They're just not stepping out and stepping up to the plate and taking a stand against him on this," she says.
Tully says 80 to 90 percent of the American people have said time and time again that immigration reform is important to them, yet elected officials repeatedly downplay the significance of the issue.
