Bush Calls for Better Treatment of
Immigrants and
Pledges to Cut INS Waiting Times
July 5, 2000
San Diego, CA -- Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush,
campaigning in San Diego, renewed his appeal to Hispanic voters by calling for
all permanent residency applications to be handled within six months, instead of
the current three to five years.
Speaking at the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference, Bush said
he wanted immigrants to the United States to be welcomed with open arms rather
than by a hostile Immigrant and Naturalization Service bureaucracy, as is often
the case today. He pledged to bring to the INS “a new standard of service and
culture of respect.”
The speech to La Raza expanded on a previous Bush proposal to split the INS
into two separate agencies -- one to patrol the border and prevent illegal
immigration and the other to deal with legal migration.
“Every INS immigration application should be fully processed within six
months of submission. No immigrant
should have to wait more than six months for the INS to make a decision on his
or her application,” Bush said.
“Legal immigrants are the future and the changing face of America and we
should welcome them and treat them with respect,” he said.
“Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande. But sometimes the INS sends a different message.
My administration will reform the INS and make it worthy of a nation of
immigrants,” Bush said. He added, “We've got an INS that is too bureaucratic, too
stuck in the past.”
Governor Bush has a record of reaching out to Hispanics, whose importance in
U.S. politics is growing. When he
won a landslide victory for a second term as governor of Texas in 1998, Bush
took almost half the Hispanic vote, more than any previous Republican.
In campaign speeches, he has even expressed understanding of the motives
of illegal immigrants from Mexico, saying they were only trying to help their
children build a better future.
Bush has been using his 24-year-old nephew, George P. Bush, a self-described
Hispanic-American who is bilingual in Spanish and English, to head his youth
outreach campaign and to tape some Spanish-language TV advertisements.
The younger Bush is the son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his Mexican-born
wife, Columba.
In order to fund his program, Bush proposed providing an additional $500
million over five years to hire additional staff at INS, which currently takes
52 months to process immigrant applications in California, 69 months in Texas
and 49 months in Arizona.
In Washington, D.C., Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office
noted that the California Democrat is the prime sponsor of a bill aimed at
reducing the backlog of naturalization and visa applications. “I
would hope Governor Bush would endorse this bill and urge prompt passage of this
legislation by Congress,” said Feinstein, who is pushing for $127 million for
the agency to hire staff and boost computer operations without increasing
application fees.
| 
