San Diego’s congressional delegation split in their reaction to President Bush’s State of the Union address last night. On the issue of immigration, both Democrat Susan Davis and Republican Brian Bilbray were pleased the president was pushing for an overhaul of immigration laws. But Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter of Alpine hoped to hear tougher talk on border enforcement. On the issue of sending more troops into Iraq, Hunter said the President is on the right track.
Hunter: And we ought to have this foreign policy leaving American shores with one voice, so that our allies and our enemies don’t think that we’re fractured. And I would hope that would be the response of democrat and republican members, following the president’s implementation of this plan.
The President’s State of the Union comments on immigration seemed to please San Diego Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray. President Bush called for an overhaul of immigration laws.
Bilbray: Well first of all on the immigration issue, he’s using the word now “temporary worker” instead of “guest worker.” I think the message there is amnesty needs to be abandoned, and we need to talk about employer enforcement, and that’s sort of a base. So we’re kind of encouraged on that.
San Diego Democratic Representative Susan Davis heard some new possibilities in the President’s State of the Union message. She seems to believe the new majority in Congress will actually help him solve the puzzle of immigration.
Davis : You know, every speech that he’s given, I think he’s actually mentioned immigration. I think the difficulty is that he hasn’t had the clout to garner enough support for some of his ideas. So maybe this is the year we can in a common sense way, in a hopefully low emotional way, really take a look at these issues.
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter didn’t seem to hear what he wanted to hear about immigration.
Hunter: Every time he talks about benefits of some type, people who are watching television sets around the world, say “we better come to America illegally now, get in under the wire before the door closes. We need to extend the San Diego border fence 700 plus miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Let’s shut down those smugglers’ roots.
