Dean Says Bush 'Scapegoating'
Hispanics
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, April 1, 2006
OAKLAND, Calif. Mar. 31 --
Democratic Party chief Howard Dean accused President Bush and the Republican
Party on Friday of exploiting the immigration issue for political gain by
scapegoating Hispanics.
Dean and Bush agree on the legislation at the heart of the debate. Both
support a Senate bill that would expand guest-worker programs for an estimated
400,000 immigrants each year.
However, at a speech in an Oakland union hall, the 2004 Democratic presidential
candidate sought to tie Bush to a much tougher House bill that would tighten
borders and make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to offer aid
to illegal immigrants. Bush does not back the House bill.
''This is a nonsensical proposal put out by far right-wingers in the Republican
Party who have been endorsed for re-election by the president of the United
States,'' Dean said. ''The president has a moral obligation to rein in the
right-wing extremists in his party and stop this divisive rhetoric about
immigrants.''
Dean devoted much of his short speech here to the immigration debate, which has
taken center stage in Washington this election year and touched off mass
demonstrations elsewhere. More than 500,000 immigration-rights activists
marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, largely to protest the House
measure.
Bush has spent much of his career courting Hispanic voters, the nation's
fastest-growing voting bloc, and he has helped double the GOP's share of the
Hispanic vote since 2000.
Nevertheless, Dean accused Bush and fellow Republicans of demagoguery in the
immigration debate, saying it fit with a long-standing pattern. He cited
the president's opposition to the University of Michigan's affirmative-action
program and Bush's decision to ''pick on'' homosexuals -- an apparent reference
to the gay marriage issue in the 2004 election.
''In 2006 it's immigrants. That's what their strategy is on the Republican
side: divide people, scapegoat them, set them aside, point the finger at
them,'' Dean said. ''Well, that may be good for the Republican Party, but
it's bad for America, and we're not going to do that.''
During his remarks criticizing Bush, Dean was interrupted by a shout of
''Impeach!''
A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee did not immediately return a
call for comment.
In Mexico, Bush said the United States must enforce the laws protecting borders
but he also repeated his support for a ''guest worker program that would allow
undocumented immigrants already in the country to remain.
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