George W Bush has stepped into the hot issue of immigration reform, urging Congress to come up with a “positive resolution” to the problem that he was unable to find while he was President. Bush yesterday used a naturalization ceremony at his presidential center in Dallas, which opened just recently, to make his comments about the current debate over immigration reform.
“The laws governing the immigration system aren’t working,” Bush told the 20 new US citizens in front of him. “The system is broken. We are now in an important debate on reforming those laws, and that’s good.” However, Bush refused to become involved with specific policy issues, merely adding that he hoped a positive resolution to the debate could be found and that a benevolent spirit needs to be kept in mind, along with remembering the important contributions that are made to the United States by immigrants.
On the same day as Bush’s remarks, Republicans from the House of Representatives began meeting in the hope of finding a way to move forward with the heated dispute, having already rejected the comprehensive bill that was passed last month by the Senate.
House Republican leaders are proposing their own bill that could split the reforms into individual parcels and while Bush’s comments are surprisingly consistent with that of Democratic President Obama, it is unclear how many members of his own party will be swayed by his views – although there is a growing sentiment that ignoring immigrant groups is going to result in the Republican Party ending up in the political wilderness on a permanent basis.