Bush presses for reform on border policy

The Washington Times ran this story detailing some of the president's comments regarding his "guest worker"/amnesty proposal, as well as some remarks made by opponents such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Another blog linked to this Reason story from 1995 (Reason being very much open-borders in its immigration views) which makes several points in agreement with the president's assertion that illegals "do jobs Americans won't do".

What is lost in all the immigration debate - amid all the talk about which Americans won't do what jobs for what pay, and what horrible back-breaking labor immigrants will put up with - is the undeniable fact that an open-borders immigration policy cannot coexist with a welfare state. Me personally, I support a free labor market and would support more open immigration (subject to strict anti-terror controls of course) if all the current welfare programs were scrapped. Just think of how many of those immigrant-filled jobs would suddenly be filled by "lazy" Americans if their welfare checks suddenly stopped coming and they were forced to work for a living like the rest of us. That's what's scaring me about the proposals being put forth by the Bush administration and the Republican party as a whole - I'll give you a piece of this thing you want (privatization of Social Security, maybe if we're lucky real tax reform) but you have to swallow this other thing you don't want (Medicare prescription entitlement, amnesty for illegals) if you don't want to be forced to swallow something even worse (like what the Democrats are offering). This is what the two-party system has brought us, and frankly it's frightening. I've had this conversation with a friend before, and I still haven't heard a good answer from the two-party believers.