Bush's PR strategy to diffuse immigration furor

The Bush administration is in the process of launching a public-relations campaign on border security to disguise its true intention, which is to pass a de facto amnesty packaged as a "pathway to citizenship."

The goal of the administration is to defuse criticism from the Republican Party conservative majority that the Bush administration is too close to Sen. Ted Kennedy on the immigration issue.

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The administration's public-relations campaign has two planned components: (1) to have the Department of Homeland Security conduct a series of high-visibility raids on corporations that are committing payroll tax fraud by paying illegal aliens "off-the-books," and (2) to get some new hardware in the hands of the Border Patrol so it looks like we care about border security.

The first shoe of the Bush administration campaign fell last week when DHS raided IFCO, a pallet and plastic-container company, arresting 1,187 illegal aliens and seven current and former executives of the company. Blogger and columnist Michelle Malkin was the first to catch on, predicting on Fox News that most of these illegal aliens were certain to be released.

On Tuesday, the New York Post confirmed that only 257 of the 1,187 illegal aliens were actually deported. All the rest were released, with a notice to appear for a hearing – a joke of a procedure at best. What illegal alien having been arrested and released is going to bother showing up for a deportation hearing? The Bush administration's plan was to stage the IFCO requests as a "photo op," planning to capture a news cycle.

On April 20, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the IFCO crackdown was part of the "Secure Border Initiative." In the press conference Chertoff used the phrase "comprehensive border strategy," which is the White House slogan their PR team plans to use a lot in the next few weeks and months.

The second shoe fell on Wednesday, when the Senate voted to take $1.9 billion from the Iraq war and divert the money to the Border Patrol. In the next few weeks, the Bush administration plans to roll out some nifty new Border Patrol vehicles, possibly along with some helicopters and electronic surveillance gear. The whole point is to get more "photo ops" for the military hardware on the border so middle-America watching the evening news can see that the "Secure Border Initiative" is meant to be tough.

Under this public-relations screen, President Bush's real plan is to work a deal with Sens. Kennedy and Reid to revive some form of the Hagel-Martinez compromise.

On Monday, President Bush told an audience in Irvine, Calif., that his plan was to let the 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants stay in the country: "Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic – it's not going to work. You know, you can hear people out there hollering it's going to work. It's not going to work." This is truly what the president believes.

Next, President Bush plans to introduce his "pathway to citizenship" – a multi-year plan where illegal immigrants can "earn citizenship." If you think the "pathway to citizenship" sounds a lot like the "roadmap to peace" the Bush administration has proposed for Israel, you're right. The PR experts advising the White House think it's time to jettison the "guest-worker" idea and replace it with a "pathway to citizenship." So the idea for Israel is to get peace with the radical Islamofacists by giving away more land, and the administration's plan for immigration is to make peace with the illegal aliens and their supporters by giving away citizenship in exchange for a some sort of a promise to work.

In the final analysis, the idea is nothing more than to rename the "guest worker" idea as the "pathway to citizenship," because the administration thinks the new term will be more politically acceptable.

The Bush administration is desperate to pound home this plan and to get some legislation through Congress before the August recess. Within the Republican Party, a groundswell of concern is being openly expressed by Republican incumbents whose seats are on the line in the November 2006 election. The White House plans to defuse the criticism by passing some immigration bill that will create a mucho grande "photo op" at the bill signing, so the president can declare the "War on the Border" won.

Key to the strategy is President Bush's rock-solid determination that a fence will never be built during his administration to secure our border with Mexico.

Besides, the administration advisers know that the history of past immigration bills is that "forgiveness clauses" turn into de facto amnesties for millions of illegal aliens and the enforcement provisions are quickly forgotten about. After the TV cameras leave the border, the budget money can be transferred back to Iraq.

The Bush administration has decided to cave into the demands of the illegal aliens because President Bush himself agrees with the Democratic Party position that the illegal aliens are good for the country. The whole point of the Bush administration's immigration policy right now is to make sure the street demonstrations stop, planning that the public will forget about the issue by next November, thinking the new law has solved the problem. This, the administration hopes, will quiet nervous Republican incumbents who fear losing their jobs

In the next few months, expect a lot more immigration "photo ops" with smiling Republican and Democratic senators shaking hands, agreeing on "comprehensive immigration reform" that both sides intend to be nothing more than a continuation of the status quo. The only real change is that some 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants now in the country will suddenly be on the "pathway to citizenship."