Translated material
Bush Wall
Immigrants await legalization of enhanced regime
US President George W. Bush took up the issue of immigration. Addressing his fellow Americans Monday evening, he laid out his vision of the role of illegal immigrants in America today. They number from 11 to 14 million people, three quarters of them are from Latin America. Illegal immigrants mostly enter the United States through the border with Mexico and settle in California, Texas and Florida. There they are mainly employed in agricultural work, construction and transport.The president proposed the legalization of a significant part of immigrants, coupled with strengthening the regime on the 3,200-kilometer US-Mexico border. There are plans to create special barriers equipped with sensors and infrared cameras, which the president's speech called "the most technologically advanced initiative in ensuring border security." According to the president, authorities at the border “still do not have full control.” Therefore, by the end of 2008, another 6 thousand will be added to the 12 thousand National Guardsmen. The goal of these measures is “to close the border to illegal immigrants, criminals, drug couriers and terrorists.”
Those who find themselves on this side of the wall will be dealt with individually. George W. Bush suggested that immigrants wishing to legalize obtain temporary “guest worker” status, which could ultimately develop into “earned citizenship.” To do this, you need to work in the United States for a certain number of years, pay fines and taxes, go through a background check procedure and speak English. The law will provide immigrants with an identity card with anthropometric data, allowing the employer to find out everything about the candidate who appears before him for employment. The total cost of the president's measures is almost $2 billion.
George Bush's proposals are "an attempt to find a compromise between two directly opposite positions existing on the immigration problem in the American elite," Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security, told Vremya Novostey. He recalled that back in December 2005, the US House of Representatives passed a bill declaring all illegal immigrants criminals subject to deportation for the mere fact of illegally crossing the border, as well as imposing sanctions against their employers. It was against this bill that hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested across US cities in early May.
On the other hand, the Senate is currently considering a bill of exactly the opposite nature, introducing a full amnesty for illegal immigrants, provided that they did not violate American law after crossing the border. “Such an amnesty is carried out in the United States every 10-15 years, because the immigration system cannot cope with the situation. But amnesty itself is not capable of changing the system, and the problem arises again,” noted Mr. Zlobin.
“The presidential initiative is an attempt, firstly, to find a compromise, and secondly, to solve the problem a little more fundamentally than just a 100% amnesty or 100% punishment,” our interlocutor emphasized. Mr. Bush's gesture is also intended for those who are just planning to come to the United States to earn money. They were given a signal that from now on it would be more profitable to do it legally in order to receive a temporary worker card.
As for the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico, this part of the presidential address, according to Mr. Zlobin, caused the liveliest comments. After all, previously the authorities traditionally turned a blind eye to the social infrastructure created in the border region, designed specifically to serve illegal immigrants. “America needs immigrants, it needs cheap labor capable of doing the work that Americans will not do,” the expert reminds. “That’s why no one here believes that the United States actually wants to tightly close the border with Latin America. A joke has already appeared: in order to build border fortifications, Bush will have to turn to the same illegal immigrants,” noted VN’s interlocutor.