President Bush Says More on Immigration Bill

According to President Bush, I'm sucking the soul out of America.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported Wednesday on Bush's comments.

In an exclusive interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Bush expressed his determination to fight for changes that would let millions of illegal immigrants gain legal status. He cast the debate as a struggle over America’s soul and its reputation as a welcoming nation.

"I’m deeply concerned about America losing its soul. Immigration has been the lifeblood of a lot of our country’s history," the president said during an interview on Air Force One. "I am worried that a backlash to newcomers would cause our country to lose its great capacity to assimilate newcomers."

America's soul is being violated not by me, but by the elites in Washington who want to pass this disastrous piece of "immigration" legislation. I'm so ticked off, I'm tempted to use strong language.

America is a welcoming nation, and we do have a great capacity to assimilate newcomers. We (I'm speaking loosely, because I wasn't around for a lot of this) treated the Irish badly when they first came here, but now St. Patrick's Day (and his green beer) is one of the holidays we celebrate without taking the day off.

We treated the Italians badly when they first came here, but now Italian food, and especially pizza, are as American as apple pie. We think nothing of going out for Chinese food or sushi or especially Mexican food. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more north of the border than it is south of the border.

The problem isn't Americans' willingness to allow assimilation of new cultures. It's the lack of willingness on the part of the newcomers to assimilate into American culture.

And the coming catastrophe of this Congressional crapola of "comprehensive immigration reform" is just the beginning. It's an incredibly huge disincentive for any of the now-illegal-yet-soon-to-be-documented aliens to assimilate at all. They get all the benefits without any responsibilities to speak of.

Sure, they'll pay $1000 to start, but how many of them have employers who will pay that fee as a cost of doing business? And once the fee is paid and they pass the nominal background "check" (Immigration clerk looks around, "Do you see any problems? I don't see any problems. Approved!"), they get to stay until the day they die. Unassimilated. Twelve million of them or more.

And the rest of us have to learn to speak Spanish if we want to get a job anywhere that deals with the public. (How come we don't have French illegals? I'd get that job in a heartbeat.)

I love our legal immigrants, and I'm in favor of loosening the restrictions that exist on the normal kind of legal immigration through the existing channels we already have. And we should pay the money we need to in order to hire enough people to process the legal immigration applicants that are already in line.

But what I really don't want to do is grant de facto legal status to all the cheats and criminals and, yes, terrorists who are in this country.

What really torques my jaws is the pro-illegal-alien movement that's been in our faces for over a year with their "Up Yours!" attitude, screaming that America belongs to them and not us and refusing to become part of American culture. Ever since the mass protests in the first half of 2006, the immigration issue has felt more like an invasion than anything else.

La Shawn Barber has a great couple of posts on illegal immigration, with some good links. Take a look at Culture of Illegal Aliens (don't miss the comments) and It's Official.

President Bush doesn't have a clue how angry people are. And he doesn't want one, either.

Update:

David Limbaugh's column.

Peggy Noonan's column.