Bush amnesty plan angers GOP faithful.

ITEM: A headline for the January 12, 2004 edition of Human Events Online announced: "Plan for Immigration Reform Dismays Many Conservatives." Among those quoted in the article were syndicated columnist Don Feder, who said, "It's nauseating, to be honest with you. I didn't vote for Bush to get this." Free Congress Foundation President Paul Weyrich told Human Events: "I think that for the first time, he may have come up with something that may seriously endanger his base." Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) had this to say: "You can disguise it any way you want, it's still amnesty."

Expressions of disappointment and outrage over President Bush's so-called immigration reform plan which would legalize millions of illegal aliens already in the United States, as well as invite millions more to come--have erupted from the chattering classes that have provided the president's most unswerving support: radio talk-show hosts and political columnists.

"This is the worst betrayal of our country. in my lifetime," said national talk-show host Michael Savage on his January 12 broadcast. "This is much more serious than dropping your pants for an intern. This is a policy that represents a danger to national security." Savage went so far as to call for President Bush's impeachment over the matter (though he later backed off on that score, explaining on his website that he really was trying to "save the Bush Presidency" and "awaken this good man" who has been misled on the immigration issue).

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: No one should have been surprised on January 7, 2004 when President Bush announced his plan to give legal "temporary worker" status to millions of illegal aliens now in the U.S. as well as to "willing foreign workers" who claim to have job offers in this country. The president had been laying political groundwork for this venture since before entering the White House, as THE NEW AMERICAN has been documenting in regular reports on the issue.

In a January 29, 2001 "Insider Report," for example, we noted President-elect Bush's revealing remarks that appeared in the Financial Times on December 12, 2000. "Mark my words," Bush told the British newspaper, "I am going to have more problems with members of my own party than I will with Democrats." Bush said that if "anybody comes to me demanding this or telling me to do that, they'll be finished." The Bush quote went on: "They tried to do that in Texas with English-only [which attempted to abolish bilingual education]. But I said: 'No. You are not going to destroy this party by being extremist.' ... I had to change the imagery in my party. I had to change the idea that my party was against things. Against immigrants. Against public schools."

As governor of Texas, Bush had already shown that he had adopted the liberal-left, multi-culturalist vocabulary and the politically correct posture concerning immigration-related issues. He regularly used the preferred Democrat term, "undocumented worker," instead of illegal alien. Likewise, he adopted the notion that citizens who expect their political leaders to obey the law by policing our borders and enforcing our immigration quotas are somehow anti-immigrant or xenophobic. Citizens who valiantly tried to uphold English as the official language were denounced as "extremist."

In our March 26, 2001 issue, we reported on President Bush's mid-February meeting in Mexico with Mexican President Vicente Fox. We noted: "At the conclusion of their confab the two leaders announced the formation of an 'immigration working group,' comprised of cabinet-level American and Mexican representatives, to discuss such matters as opening the border to a further influx of Mexican guest workers into the U.S., granting legal residence to hundreds of thousands of 'undocumented' Mexican workers, and easing U.S. attempts to secure its borders. President Bush appointed Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft as the panel's U.S. representatives."

In our September 24, 2001 article, "Bush Amnesty Looms for Illegal Aliens," we reported that 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.'" We went on to say: "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.'"

In our July 15, 2002 article, "The Rise of the Garrison State," we noted that, even after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, "our borders continue to leak like sieves." We added: "Incredibly, the administration continues to support granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens already inside the U.S. And it supports policies that provide housing and other benefits to aliens, thus attracting still more illegals.... It is impossible to provide 'homeland security' when those charged with supervising our immigration and borders are totally overwhelmed."

Throughout 2001, 2002 and 2003, THE NEW AMERICAN repeatedly warned that the Bush amnesty plan--which he continues to insist is not an amnesty--was coming. It had been dealt a temporary setback by the 9-11 terrorist attacks, but would re-emerge. In "Bush's Coming Amnesty Plan," written two weeks before the president's January 7 announcement, but appearing in our January 12 issue, we again called the shots on this disastrous proposal.