In his speech on immigration last night, President Bush said " We are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws."
Yet, as usual, he ignored the most important aspect of the immigration enforcement - illegal employers. As long as American employers are allowed to flaunt the law and hire workers without proof of citizenship, illegal entrants will continue to flood our border.
American corporations have outsourced virtually all manufacturing jobs. Now, they ensure that all service jobs will be paid at the lowest possible wage.
When President Bush took office, prosecutions of employers virtually stopped - dropping from over 1400 in 1999 to 3 in 2004. Arizona's Republican legislature endorsed this conspiracy to ignore our laws by refusing to pass a bill that would make it a state crime to hire an illegal worker, but passing a law to criminalize landlords that rent to illegal immigrants.
Adding an insult to the intelligence of voters, Bush proposed a "tamperproof" guest worker card while ignoring the true prize of illegal workers - the easily-counterfeited, paper social security card.
I am confident that Bush's next proposal will reflect his true goal - to lower the federal minimum wage.
