Republican Congressman Steve King predicts President Bush’s latest proposal on immigration reform will fall short. Yesterday, Bush visited the southern border in Arizona and suggested illegal immigrants should be allowed to pay $3,500 for a three-year work visa.
King says Bush has been trying to “put a price on amnesty” for a long time. “I don’t think it’s going to fly,” King says. “I think when they start looking at it and they say that you’re licensing people who are breaking the law that the American public will rise up and reject that.”
King also opposes the president’s call for a “tamper-proof” national ID card. King concedes some Republicans in congress back some sort of amnesty for illegal immigrants and he says there are enough Democrats to get it enacted into law this year. “(Democrats) understand that it gives them significant political power,” King says. “Republicans apparently don’t understand the price that America would be paying.”
President Bush is hoping to achieve some sort of compromise on the issue by August. The plan the president’s floating would give undocumented workers a three-year temporary visa, but to get a green card they’d have to return home, make an application for U.S. citizenship and pay a $10,000 fine.