The numbers of legal immigrants tucked into the fine print of the Hagel-Martinez bill would make an astronomer blanch. You have to wonder what sort of swamp gas the Senators are inhaling to create such a nightmarish future of immigration on steroids.

The Heritage Foundation crunched the legislation and estimated the bill would lay out the welcome mat for more than 100 million additional residents in the next two decades.

If enacted, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) would be the most dramatic change in immigration law in 80 years, allowing an estimated 103 million persons to legally immigrate to the U.S. over the next 20 years—fully one-third of the current population of the United States.

If that doesn’t give you the overpopulation vapors, then advance to Sen. Jeff Sessions’ analysis which puts the number of legal immigrants far higher, over 200 million in 20 years. He remarked that the Senate bill “would permit up to 217.1 million new legal immigrants into the United States over the next 20 years, a number equal to 66 percent of the total current population of the United States.”

Sessions told FOX News that if the law passes, the number of immigrants that could legally enter the country “would increase by fivefold and could be far more than that … and that has a tremendous impact, really. These will be almost an entitlement to enter the country.

One incidental cost toted up was the benefits for the parents of 100 million immigrants: $30 billion per year or more.

Now imagine the taxpayers’ mega-pricetag for constructing infrastructure to accomodate 100-200 million people — more roads, schools, dams, power plants, sewer systems and public transportation. (The 1950 population of the entire country was 150 million souls.)

There will also be less — quiet, trees and quality of life.

Bush has renamed his “Guest Work Program” as a “Temporary Worker Program.” Presumably, this is intended to confuse the public, to make them assume that both the program and the workers are only temporary. Of course, neither is true. The idea that the workers would only stay temporarily in the U.S. is a total joke. And once the program gets going, the lobby for perpetuating it ad infinitum would be rich and powerful.

Let’s do the math on sending 6,000 National Guardsmen to the border for one year. At an average of 21 hours per week on sentry duty, that’s 750 men for a border that is almost 2,000 miles long, or about one per 2.6 miles of border.

And anyway, “Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities.” And the National Guard force will be drawn down after one year.

The response by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was basically like Br’er Rabbit asking the fox to throw him in the Briar Patch. He desperately wants Bush’s plan to pass to produce more Democratic voters. The American Establishment wants the Senate bill bad. The networks should have had Rep. Tom Tancredo give the response.

I’ve gone through the transcript of President Bush’s immigration speech according to the rules outlines in Gateway Pundit’s “Open Border Drinking Game,” and here’s the results:

Directions:
For each time the president mentions the following words or phrases do the following…

- “Welcome”- Salt Your Glasses
- Once

- “Welcoming Society”- Swig from “XX” Drink!
- Once

- “Jobs Americans won’t do”- down one “XX” Drink!
- Once for “jobs Americans are not doing”

- “Nation of immigrants“- Tequila shots Drink!
- Once

- “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande”- Drink, Si?
- Amazingly enough, no

- “Path to citizenship”- Beer bongs! Drink!
Twice

-“Guests”/”guest workers” — one shot.
Well, Bush renamed his guest worker plan a “temporary worker” plan, and said the word temporary six times.

“Comprehensive immigration reform” — chug.
Twice

- “This is not amnesty”- Naked pyramid,… tequila, chug!
” What I have just described is not amnesty” — Close enough! Chug!

[Vdare.com note: More sober reflections can be found on Isteve.com]

President Bush said “Tonight I will make it clear where I stand.”

He does not support amnesty but he does support a clear path to citizenship for the 12-20 million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States. According to the President, there is a difference between “those who just recently arrived and those who have been here a long time, those who have established roots and bought a home.”

Yes, the difference is the long-term illegal aliens are better at hiding.

The President did say that “we do not yet have full control of our borders” and therefore we must first secure our borders.

He wants to increase the number of border patrol agents by 6,ooo over the next couple of years. During the transition period (while new agents are being hired and trained) the President wants to send 6,000 members of the National Guard down to the southern border.

At first, I found the idea of having armed soldiers down on the border quite appealing–the problem is, President Bush wants to limit their function to construction and…well, basically just construction.

Great…I’m sure illegal aliens will be deterred by the possibility of an American soldier hammering a nail somewhere near their crossing point.

As the President stressed in his remarks “we are not going to militarize the border–remember, Mexico is our neighbor and Mexico is our friend.”

Let me explain something: People who leave garbage in my front yard or steal my property or let their dogs leave “presents” in my driveway…they are not my “friends” and my animosity towards them is not somehow dissipated by the fact we’re neighbors.

Should it? Being neighbors just limits the amount of travel involved in my retribution plan…is it wrong to think that way?

(Yeah, in Bryanna’s neighborhood, your “lost” cat will never be “found” if it shreds my newspaper or even wanders onto my property. Sure, I don’t get a lot of block party invites but nobody bugs me either…it’s a lovely arrangement really.)

The rest of the speech included calls for more federal funding for state and local authorites, ending the catch-and-release program, holding employers accountable, a temporary guest worker program…

Yep, pretty much the same old, tired rhetoric.

“Millions are here already…they should not be given an autromatic path to citizenship.”

“It is neither wise nor reasonable to round up and deport” these people with “long established roots.”

He also spoke directly to Congress:

“All elements of immigration reform must be addressed together or none will work.”

It sounded like a threat in a way…you know, support my guest worker garbage and give these illegal aliens a path to citizenship or I’ll veto your enforcement-only bill.

Could be wrong on that…

Bottom line: If the President hoped to appease the growing dissent with the Republican Party by appearing “tough” on immigration, he failed miserably. In fact, he would have been better off to have said nothing–tonight’s speech probably just convinced most of the “undecided” Republicans that Bush II is never going to take this issue seriously.

Then again, I suppose some people believe the arguments–that amnesty or mass deportation are the only options–that no other options remain.

The fact is we can put 10,000 troops on the border, create a limitless guest worker plan, increase funding here and there–it won’t work.

Eliminate the perks of illegal immigration and we will eliminate the illegal aliens.

No access to public education.
No access to social services.
No birthright citizenship/No anchor babies.
No home ownership.

The list goes on…I know, I’m sooo mean.

Full text here.

Steve Sailer just sent me a White House press release which includes excerpts from tonight’s Presidential address.

(What matters here people, is not the fact that Steve always seems to have the inside info but that he chooses to share it with ME–yep, he likes me best…not Brimelow, not Fulford…me. It’s good to be the king…)

For those of you holding out hope for an earth shattering speech that is chock-full of new ideas or maybe even something resembling a strategy, I hate to rain on your parade but…not gonna happen.

From the press release:

“The reality is that there are many people on the other side of our border who will do anything to come to America to work and build a better life. They walk across miles of desert in the summer heat, or hide in the back of 18-wheelers to reach our country. This creates enormous pressure on our border that walls and patrols alone will not stop. To secure the border effectively we must reduce the numbers of people trying to sneak across.”

Hmm…reduce the numbers of people trying to sneak across.

Look, the numbers of people trying to sneak across will shrink eventually because Mexico and Central America are running out of people to send–not because Bush II or any other politician has done anything to ebb the flow.

Taking credit for it though…that’s almost as bad as Gore the Internet Inventor.

Here’s another:

“The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language.”

Speak English…you’re absolutely right, Mr. President…so why is the White House website available in Spanish?

The “tone” for tonight’s address is supposedly this:

“On the tone of the debate: We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say.”

Notable Exception: Unless your citizenship papers say American…we are apparently entitled to neither.

We do however get to pick up the tab…that Bush II, he’s a giver.

“We are a nation of immigrants…today’s immigrants are tomorrow’s Americans…they dug our canals, they built out railroads.”

Yeah…and some of them were technically slaves who made your family a lot of money, Senator Kennedy.

“We need an immigration policy worthy of our heritage…” said Kennedy.

Worthy of Kennedy heritage or American heritage?

Yikes…if he means a policy worthy of Kennedy heritage we’re going to have an immigration system organized by crime, fueled by greed and devoid of conscience–and accountability.

In short, the immigration system we already have.

He’s still going…make it stop, make it stop.

Just a quick break from the Senate debate…I laughed outloud when I read this headline in today’s Miami Herald:

Bush speech won’t deter TV season finales By Glenn Garvin[May 15, 2006]

Just to sum it up…nobody–not even Hollyweird–thinks the President will say anything worth hearing tonight.

VDARE.com will still cover it but only because its bound to be funny.

Senator Arlen Specter (Chairman, Judiciary Committee) wants to categorize illegal immigrants.

1. Those here less than five years.

2. Those here more than five years.

3. Those who arrived here after January 2004.

Clearly, this concept has a purpose–some form of amnesty and/or citizenship will be based on the illegal immigrant’s length of stay.

I blogged on it last month.

Gee whiz…I wish he would just call me because I have a much simpler plan:

One category: All illegal aliens from those who arrived after the last amnesty plan to those who arrived five minutes ago.

None of them get anything but a ticket home…at their own expense.

Coming soon to a theatre near you…Immigration Reform: The Sequel by Senator Harry Reid

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Navada) needs to look at his budget and make room for a speech writer–or better yet, just a garden-variety advisor who’s sole function is to remind the Senator (on a daily if not hourly basis) to not be stupid!

Sheesh…

He began his floor remarks this afternoon by mentioning the upcoming “blockbuster movie” the Da Vinci Code…he also managed to sneak in a plug that it opens this Friday nationwide. Desperately trying to figure out what The Code has to do with immigration reform, Senator Reid suddenly mentioned something he called

“The Senate’s own summer blockbuster–Immigration Reform, The Sequel”

Ohhh! I think it’s a metaphor…oh wait, maybe not.

Oh yeah, he babbled on about “scenes” and “parts”…“roles” and “release dates.”

This is my best guess translation of the Minority Leader’s opening…umm…remarks:

Once again, the Senate is taking up the issue of immigration reform and I would like to take the opportunity to state–for the record–that I oppose the War in Iraq, I disagree with the President’s national address scheduled for later this evening, I think we need to give immediate citizenship to anybody who wants it and I will not be here Friday because I am going to see the Da Vinci Code.

Thank God…he’s done speaking. Oh wait a minute…Senator Specter is taking his place–and I didn’t think it could get worse.

Quick–get Reid back!

[Email Senator Reid here. Luckily, the forms are available en espanol.]

The Washington Times has a story quoting Rosemary Jenks ( “If there is anyone left in the world, we would accept another 325,000 through the guest-worker program in the first year.” ) and Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Rector estimates that the Senate bill would grant citizenship to between 9 million and 10 million illegal aliens. If allowed to become citizens, those immigrants would be permitted to bring their entire extended family, including any elderly parents.
“The long-term cost of government benefits to the parents of 10 million recipients of amnesty could be $30 billion per year or more,” Mr. Rector said. “In the long run, the [Hagel-Martinez] bill, if enacted, would be the largest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years.” [Reform bill to double immigration,By Charles Hurt , Washington Times, May 15, 2006]

You can read the details of Rector’s research here.