Menendez denounces Bush immigration plan

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called President Bush’s immigration plan “unacceptable” Saturday, saying Bush has favored sound bites and generalities over real reform.

“When President Bush said in Arizona on Monday that ‘family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande,’ he failed to mention that his latest immigration proposal would do just the opposite,” Menendez said in the Hispanic Democratic response to the president’s weekly radio address.

Bush’s plan, according to Menendez, would separate thousands of workers from their families and demand astronomical fees from undocumented immigrants seeking American citizenship.

{mosads}“President Bush must stop trying to placate the extreme right wing of his Republican party and must show true leadership so we can get the job done right,” Menendez said.

The president has met with Republican opposition in forwarding his plan, which includes a guest worker program unpopular with many in the GOP that would allow undocumented immigrants a chance to earn legal status. Undocumented workers would be able to stay in the U.S. for up to six years while working toward citizenship.

Conservative Republicans and influential stakeholder groups have called such a program “amnesty” for lawbreakers, claiming it trivializes the citizenship process undergone by the U.S.’s legal immigrants.

Bush has called the proposal “a compassionate way to treat people who come to our country” that “recognizes the reality of the world in which we live.”

But the guest worker program that has brought conservative criticism may not be enough for congressional Democrats like Menendez, who have denounced the plan’s fees and restrictions

According to Menendez, a typical family of five would have to pay up to $64,000 to obtain legal status, and children and spouses of new guest workers would not be allowed to accompany those workers into the country.

“This is very different from the bipartisan approach which passed the Senate last year,” Menendez said. “We hope that this won’t be the White House’s final proposal, but it unnecessarily delays the process of getting a bill approved and signed into law as soon as possible.”