LAT: Immigrant Issues Are Personal for Bush: comfort level with Mexicans

[DeepModem Mom]

Immigrant Issues Are Personal for Bush
Associates say he has long had a comfort level with Mexicans and their culture. In a 2004 campaign video, he waved a Mexican flag.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2006

....Long before the immigration fight that is rattling the nation, Bush developed a picture of immigration from his life in Midland, where he knew (Cecilia) Levine and other Mexican immigrants personally and came to see both sides of the border as part of the same universe.

A three-hour drive from Mexico, Midland did not have the feel of such border cities as El Paso, but it saw a wave of Mexican immigration long before many other communities across the South and the West. It is where Bush spent many of his childhood years and where he later returned to start an oil exploration business.

What Bush learned in Midland shaped his ability to appeal to Latino voters and foreshadowed what could be one of his most important legacies: helping the Republican Party compete for the nation's fast-growing political constituency.

And it is having an impact now as Congress debates an overhaul of immigration law.

Conservatives are calling for tough enforcement measures to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants....But Bush has carved out a more moderate approach. He sides with conservatives by calling for strict border enforcement and opposing what they call amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants. Still, he supports a guest-worker program that would match foreigners with U.S. businesses and, as he said Friday, "bring people out of the shadows of American society so they don't have to fear the life they live."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush2apr02,0,1507704,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[FloridaPat]

1. There are not that many millionaire Mexicans. * only feels good with

millionaires. He only wants to get rid of expensive workers. Help out his corporate buddies.

[QC]

2. {sigh} He's just so noble! n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. What a crock of SHIT!

I think one thing we can all agree on is that Bush is no friend of the poor, no matter what color they are.

This story made me want to puke. So Bush helped one Mexican in twenty years. Wow. What a saint. He reminds me of the people who make snide comments about minorities but then qualify it with "but I'm not a racist...one of my best friends is Mexican!"

[fishnfla]

4. Well if the President can wave the Mexican flag.......

could I just say: if he is for it, I'm agin' it

[adriennui]

5. who knows?

maybe he spent his lost decade down in mexico way....snorting coke, drinking tequila and watching donkey shows. it sure seems like vicente has some thing over the chimp, he's the one blackmailing jorge with his illegal immigration policy.