Bush questioned on illegal immigration act (Hazleton Standard-Speaker)

By L.A. TARONE
Staff Writer

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta and the controversial Illegal Immigration Relief Act made their way into President Bush’s speech in Lancaster on Wednesday afternoon.

Bush addressed the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, discussing, among other things, his veto of the bill expanding the State-Children’s Health Insurance (S-CHIP) Program. Congress voted to dramatically expand the program by adding another $35 billion to it over five years, and covering the children of people earning as much as $83,000 annually. Bush favored a smaller expansion of about $5 billion.

But his speech was far-ranging, covering a long list of topics – though immigration was not one of them.

Afterward, however, he took questions from the crowd. Two people asked about immigration and one mentioned Hazleton specifically and Barletta, though not by name.

“Recently, the mayor of Hazleton came to Lancaster city and spoke about his views regarding penalties for landlords and others who support illegal immigrants,” the questioner said, according to a White House transcript. “The city of Lancaster passed an ordinance that rejected that sort of thinking. I’d like your thoughts about that position, please.”

Bush took the opportunity to push for what he termed a “comprehensive reform” of the nation’s immigration laws – a move critics have derided as amnesty, as such proposals include paths to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

“(O)ne of the reasons I was strongly in favor of comprehensive immigration reform is so that would preempt local governments from taking a variety of actions which creates a confusing mosaic around the country,” Bush said. “Obviously, you know, local governments can do what they want to do. But I believe the reason they feel like they need to do that is because the federal government hasn’t acted with a comprehensive immigration reform bill. And one of the consequences of the federal government not being able to act in a focused, concerted way is that people felt obligated to respond locally.”

Bush said he didn’t know whether Congress would try again, but added he was “deeply disappointed that we couldn’t get the bill going.

“The country needs to address this thing in a comprehensive fashion,” Bush added.

Barletta took issue with Bush’s remarks.

“He should be reminded we already have policies dealing with immigration,” he said Wednesday night. “We have existing laws to prevent people from entering the country without proper documentation. But the federal government chooses not to enforce its own policies. That inaction forces cities like Hazleton to take the steps we have.”

Barletta also criticized what he sees as federal inaction on “sanctuary cities” – those that either prevent their police departments from assist the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from enforcing immigration laws and/or make no effort to check immigration status.

“The president said cities like Hazleton can do what they want to help control illegal immigration, but we were sued,” Barletta said.

“The flip side of what he said means cities like New Haven, Conn., can openly create sanctuary city policies which aid and abet illegal aliens – and the federal government allows it. That is just plain wrong.

“There needs to be strong leadership on the federal level so existing laws can be enforced,” Barletta said.

The questioner was referring to an appearance Barletta made at a Lancaster County GOP Committee fundraiser last month, which caused some controversy. Both Robert Nix, chairman of the Pennsylvania Hispanic Republicans, and Luis Mendoza, chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly’s Pennsylvania chapter, criticized the committee for inviting Barletta because of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act. Both see it as targeting Hispanics.

Another questioner asked Bush whether he had further proposals to halt illegal immigration. Bush said he did – doubling the number of Border Patrol agents and “modernizing” the border, though he didn’t define the term.

He again called for a “guest worker program,” and said he’d ended the old “catch-and-release” policy regarding those caught sneaking into the country.

“I don’t think you can fully enforce the border like Americans expect unless you recognize that people are willing to do whatever it takes to sneak in here to do jobs Americans aren’t willing to do,” Bush said.

“And therefore, I believe, as a integral part of border security, that we say to somebody, you can come here on a temporary basis in order to pick peaches or to work in a chicken factory. In other words, there’s a lot of jobs Americans aren’t willing to do, but somebody else is willing to do it because they want to put food on the table for their families. And until we have a rational temporary guest worker program, people are going to sneak in.”

Bush and Barletta were once allies – the mayor appeared at regional Bush rallies in 2004 and the president appointed Barletta to the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities that year.

However, the camps have split over immigration.