US - Bush says immigration system not working

29 December 2004

U.S. President George W. Bush told a press conference recently that the immigration system is not working and that he would push for a temporary guest worker program during his second term.

The U.S. mainly has problems with its border to Mexico. There are several cases every year with people being smuggled into the U.S. in trunks of cars, sometimes suffocating.

Bush told the press conference his plan, which failed to pass through Congress last year January, to grant some of the estimated eight million to 10 million illegal immigrants work visas for at least six years would take pressure of the porous U.S. – Mexican border.

"The system we have today is not a compassionate system. It's not working. And as a result, the country is less secure than is could be with a rational system," Bush said.

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