I'm trying to remember: Why did George Bush and John McCain push so hard for Amnesty for Illegals?

cane74

There are no party leaders that's the problem, they are pandering for votes and switch sides of an issue like paper blowing in the wind. Both sides have supported and opposed this issue. If you are able to talk to one without making a big donation they will support what ever you say then vote how big money tells them to.

Badge203

They want the votes

Drexl

Because of what happened in Postville, Iowa.

Dude

The liberals believe in open borders and want as many illegals to be legalized as possible to add to their voting base. Republicans are worried about alienating latinos because they are the largest growing voting block in this country. In the end, America suffers for the pandering to illegals and not securing our borders.

samantha

They both did so against the very loud protests of most of the members of the Republican Party and the vast majority of conservatives.

You cannot make the assumption that the actions of Bush reflects the beliefs of the party that he represents. Politicians are not "the party", many of them pretend to believe things that they don't in order to get elected and then do things that aren't consistent with what those that elected them were led to expect. It's a problem with politicians of all parties, not just Republicans.

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edited after additional details -

No; Democrats do not all think alike either; Democrats do have a tendency to think more as a "group" and many liberals hate the very idea of 'individuals' but they are not all in agreement with their elected officials over everything... There are many Democrats that opposed the federal takeover of the HealthCare system, there are many Democrats that oppose Obama's rhetoric against Arizona's law on Illegal Immigrants.

As for "Why" George Bush was pushing for Amnesty, I'm not a mind reader, his book is due out next year and hopefully will provide more insight into his thoughts there. I suspect that he believed that it was the best way to deal with the situation. George Bush was very close friends with Vincente Fox and coming from Texas I suspect he got a good deal of support from the Hispanic community in Texas.

If he had secured the border FIRST and stopped the flood before discussing the possibility of an amnesty then I think it might have been worth discussing. As it was proposed as part of the "comprehensive bill" it was simply another disaster just like the disaster that Reagan signed into law. When Reagan signed the amnesty bill it was done with the promise from congress that the border would be secured. After they had the amnesty that they want they never secured the border. That was a disaster as it simply led to bigger problems. We should have learned that lesson and known better than to trust Congress to do what they promise.

Bush never called it "Amnesty" he mostly called it a "Guest Worker Program". in 2004 he said "I donâ€™t believe we ought to have amnesty. I donâ€™t think we ought to reward illegal behavior. There are plenty of people standing in line to become a citizen. And we ought not to crowd these people ahead of them in line. If they want to become a citizen, they can stand in line, too. Kerry supported amnesty for illegal aliens. "

His main reasons for the "Guest Worker Program" was about bringing in temporary labor; primarily for farms. He never made any public statements that I know of in favor or amnesty. The Comprehensive bill that he supported did grant amnesty (using politician weasel speak to mask it as something else).

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