Why Does Bush Insist on "Guest Worker" Programs?

In an article on Fox News Bush was quoted as saying that passing a guest worker program will help secure our borders. The president continues to insist that this "guest worker" program will not provide amnesty to illegal aliens but I fail to see how it would not. We'd legally be turning a blind eye to their illegal status. If that is not an oxymoron I don't know what is. The fact is illegal aliens need to be deported--period. No amnesty. No "guest worker" programs. If an individual is here illegally then they should be forcefully returned to their own country through deportation. Bush has already lifted federal regulations allowing undocumented workers to work in the recovery effort from Katrina and Rita. This administration is not ignoring our concerns for border security--they are slapping our collective faces about the issue. We raise our concerns and the administration not only fails to acknowledge the issue, they make policies which are even more lax.

In this same Fox News article, Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary, stated that the recent addition of 1,500 border patrol agents would allow the agency to adequately watch the borders. This is absolute nonsense. Arizona and New Mexico have already declared their states to be in a "state of emergency" due to the border issue. California is not very far from such a declaration as well. How can the addition of 1,500 employees answer this growing problem? The addition of personnel is vital but to say that the border problems will be solved with simply adding 1,500 people on the payroll doesn't cut it.

In a report from the Pew Hispanic Center just last month, it was noted that "illegal immigration" (another oxymoron) is steadily on the rise while legal immigration is on the decline. According to Jeffrey Passel, one of the writers of the report:

"We've seen a fairly steady growth in the number of undocumented immigrants living here, and this data shows very sizable numbers coming in," Passel said. "We're clearly not stopping them at the border."