Bush Amnesty Looms for Illegal Aliens.

The Bush administration has been torturing the English language in an effort to craft a new amnesty for millions of illegal aliens without saying the dread word: "amnesty." Some newly devised euphemisms include "regularization," "legalization," "permanent status," and "earned adjustment." President Bush has repeatedly dodged the amnesty issue, refusing to use the term. Still, when recently pressed on the issue, he insisted that his soon-to-be-revealed immigration policy vis-a-vis Mexico will not include a "blanket amnesty."

Speaking at a community center in Crawford, Texas, on August 25th, Bush offered his brand of compassionate, pragmatic conservatism on the issue. "There are people in Mexico who've got children, who worry about where they're going to get their next meal from," the Washington Times quoted Bush as saying. "And they're going to come to the United States," he continued, "if they think they can make money here. That's a simple fact.... And we've got to respect that, seems like to me, and treat those people with respect."

Asked by the Times if his policy might not have the effect of rewarding millions of aliens who have broken our immigration laws, Bush responded that his program would be "a far cry ... from blanket amnesty." Still, whatever Clintonesque term is finally adopted as the cover for the Bush policy, a large amnesty is certain be the central component of his immigration package.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC) has been working closely with Bush to push the amnesty program. "If only from a political point of view," EWIC co-chairman John Gay told Human Events, "permanence for a big chunk of the people who have been here illegally has to be part of the [Bush] deal."

Rep. Chris Cannon (R.-Utah), the White House's designated point man in Congress on immigration, told Human Events the Bush policy will probably come out somewhere between "blanket amnesty" and just a "guest worker" program. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft have been meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda, the "former" Mexican Communist Party radical, to formulate an amnesty plan that can be sold to Republicans as something other than a suicide pill. Castaneda, a New York University professor and well-known political writer who has become a dominant influence in President Vicente Fox's government, has called for a total amnesty for Mexicans residing illegally in the United States. Powell, Ashcroft, and Bush, reportedly, have been working to hammer Out an amnesty program that they can present to Fox during his September visit to the U.S.