Presidente Bush verged even closer to being an outright cheerleader for illegal immigration in a speech at the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha ( whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060607.html ). This site hasn't spent a lot of time analyzing Bush's various blatherings on this issue since they're usually the same and they all have too many lies and misleading, anti-American, and un-American statements than can be discussed in just one post. Nevertheless, the latest speech has him sounding like even more of an AILA shill:

The debate really -- much of the debate I'm sure you're hearing from is either amnesty or deportation, both of which I'm against. Amnesty means you're automatically a citizen. I don't think that makes sense. It's not fair to those who have waited legally. We got a lot of people waiting to be citizens here, and they've done -- they've adhered to our laws, and they're in line, they're in the citizenship line. And I think it would be unfair to those who have been here legally to say to those who have been here illegally that these folks get ahead of you in line. That doesn't make any sense to me, if we're a country that's going to uphold laws.

Our president is against deportation of illegal aliens? Surely he must mean (the strawman argument of) mass deportations, right? As he makes clear in the next paragraph, he's opposed to deporting anyone who's made it past the border. So, he thinks we should uphold our laws, but he's opposed to our laws regarding deportation of illegal aliens from the interior of the country.

And, of course, his definition of amnesty is positively Clintonesque.

On the other hand, it makes no sense at all to say we can find people and run them out of the country. For some, I guess that sounds appealing. It's impractical. It's not going to work, and it's not necessary, in my judgment. It's not the right thing to do.

Our laws say that we do need to find illegal aliens and deport them. And, in fact, that's what ICE is supposed to do. What kind of message does this send to those who are trying to locate criminal aliens?

The right thing to do is to recognize that if you've been here illegally, that there ought to be a cost for doing so, but also recognize there are decent, hardworking people that have contributed to our society at the same time. And so I believe here's a way to work out -- work through this problem. One is to say, you got to pay a fine for being here illegally. You've got to learn the English language. In other words, you got to pay -- repay a debt to society and learn the skills necessary to assimilate into our society. Show us you've been working hard. In other words, there's a way to verify your contributions to our society. And then, if you want to be a citizen, you can get in line to be a citizen, but not at the head of the line, you get to get at the back of the line.

As pointed out here, the last is a highly misleading statement. They won't be at the back of the line, and they'll continue to be able to live here in the U.S. And, whether they're "decent [and] hardworking" or not, our country comes first. Giving amnesty (as defined by the dictionary, not Bush) would have a tremendously negative impact on this country.

If Bush feels so strongly about this issue, he should resign and pursue his goals as a private citizen.