Text 2380, 807 rader
Skriven 2006-03-27 23:35:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0603272) for Mon, 2006 Mar 27
====================================================
===========================================================================
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 27, 2006

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
James S. Brady Briefing Room

Press Briefing view

  þ Iraq
      þ Reference B
      þ Reference C
  þ Immigration reform
      þ Reference B
      þ Reference C
      þ Reference D
  þ Iraq war justification
      þ Reference B
      þ Reference C
  þ China trade
  þ Israeli elections
  þ Bulgaria-U.S. military cooperation

12:24 P.M. EST

MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. I don't have anything to begin
with today. You heard from the President earlier today on immigration
reform, and his comprehensive approach to fixing our immigration system. So
with that I will be glad to go directly to your questions.

Caren, go ahead.

Q I'd like to talk on morning -- go ahead.

Q Is there a widening rift between U.S. and Iraqi forces? There seems to be
a huge difference of opinion over the raid that took place, and even
whether it was a mosque. And I was wondering, is the President concerned
about this?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that you ought to look to our military, in
terms of what the facts are on the ground. Our military put out a statement
earlier. I don't know if they provided additional briefings at this point;
I've been in some meetings with the President. But I'm not going to get
into trying to discuss the situation on the ground, particularly involving
operations that take place there. I'll leave that to our military to talk
about. And they're in the best position to talk about the facts. And I
think they put out a statement laying out what this operation was about.

But what our focus is on is continuing to urge the government to move
forward on forming -- the Iraqi political leaders -- to move forward on
forming a government of national unity. And they continue to move forward,
they continue to make progress. And we urge them to complete that process
as soon as possible.

Q Could the Iraqi government's version of events be very different?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what you're referring to when you say, "Iraqi
government." I don't know what you're referring to there.

Q Well, there are statements from the U.S. saying it wasn't a mosque, and
the Iraqis --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's right. And the military statement that was put out
said that this was a special -- Iraqi special operations forces that was
involved in this, and the United States was simply providing an advisory
and supporting role.

Q Scott, on immigration, I'm just trying to get a sense. Would the
President veto any bill that came to his desk that did not include some
sort of temporary worker program?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, I think it's way too early to jump ahead
in the legislative process. We're still very early in the legislative
process. The House has acted and passed legislation to continue to build
upon the steps we've taken to strengthen our borders. Comprehensive
immigration reform begins with securing our borders. And the President
talked about a number of steps that we've taken in that respect.

Now the Senate has taken up this legislation, and they're working to move
forward on it. There are different ideas about how to move forward. The
President said today that this is a difficult issue. There's going to have
to be compromise, and there are going to have to be tough choices. But the
President believes very strongly that if we're going to have a rational,
orderly, and secure immigration system, then we must take a comprehensive
approach. And that means we must have a temporary worker program as part of
that legislation. And I think there are a number of congressional leaders
that understand the importance of including a temporary worker program.

What a temporary worker program would do is help us relieve pressure on the
border by allowing our Border Patrol agents to -- and law enforcement
officials to go after those that are coming here for the wrong reasons: the
criminals, the drug dealers, terrorists.

And so that's why -- that's why the President believes that you have to
have that if you're really going to fix the immigration system.

Q But the way this thing is shaping up, it seems like everybody is on the
same page as far as establishing more secure borders and increasing
enforcement in the interior. The bone of contention is going to be this
temporary worker program. And it's entirely conceivable --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it's not just -- I mean, there are issues on both
sides of the political spectrum, and there are issues relating to amnesty,
there are issues -- some that favor amnesty, some that don't. The President
is firmly opposed to any sort of amnesty. But he does believe that we need
to include a temporary worker program that will match willing workers with
willing employers where Americans are not wanting to fill those jobs.

Q And won't accept anything short of that? Anything that doesn't include --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that at this point, the President is focused
on how we can work together to solve this problem. This is a growing
problem, and if we're going to fix it, it needs to be in a comprehensive
way. But I think it's pretty early in the legislative process to start
going beyond that at this point.

Helen, go ahead.

Q In a follow up for -- from this morning's briefing, I said that the
President was aware in the run-up to the war that there were no weapons --
no weapons -- unconventional weapons had been found, and you sort of denied
that it was in the memo.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, this morning you said that the President was aware there
were no weapons of mass destruction. And that is not what that article
spelled out.

Q This is what it -- the memo says: The President and Prime Minister
acknowledge that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq in
the run-up to the war.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, let me remind you and take you back to that time
period, because there was a U.N. weapons inspection team that was looking
at these issues. And that team put out I think some sort of interim report
back in December of '02, and that report showed that the regime was not
coming clean. And we said at that time that the regime was continuing its
pattern of non-cooperation and that if they continued --

Q They also said they didn't find any weapons.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- if they continued down that path, then we were prepared
to use force. The President pursued a diplomatic solution. That's why we
went to the United Nations. That's why we passed a 17th resolution that
called on the regime to disclose or face serious consequences.

Q The memo says he wanted a war, basically that he was determined, and
there were no weapons found.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, Helen, that's not an accurate assessment, and you know
it. Because you covered --

Q Is this memo wrong?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you covered us at that time period. And let me remind
you, go back to that time period, look at the public comments that were
made, look at the numerous statements that were made by the President of
the United States. We were continuing to pursue a diplomatic solution, but
we recognized that it was necessary to prepare and plan accordingly in the
event we would need to use force, and that's what we were doing at that
time, as well.

But Saddam Hussein was given every opportunity to comply, and he continued
to defy the international community -- even when he was given one final
opportunity, or face serious consequences. So let's not rewrite history. It
was very clear what was going on at the time.

Q Is this memo correct?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't -- I haven't seen that memo, Helen.

Q You haven't seen The New York Times' memo?

MR. McCLELLAN: I've seen The New York Times.

Q Well, let me just follow on that. There's nothing in there that suggests
that this is not an accurate reflection of a conversation that the
President had with Prime Minister Blair, right?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that our public and private comments are fully
consistent.

Q And therefore the guts of this appears to be accurate?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what you're talking about "guts" of. Let's be
specific in what we're talking about.

Q Well, comments made about the inevitability of war, the President's
feeling about that at one --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President was making numerous public comments at
the time, David. You covered those comments. The use of force was a last
option, but we recognized that it was necessary --

Q It was his mind frame, though.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- to prepare and plan, and that's what we were doing at the
time. And if you go and look at the public comments at the time, going back
to late in the fall and winter period of 2002, on into 2003, we were making
it very clear what the regime needed to do. And if it didn't do it, we were
prepared to enforce the Security Council Resolution 1441, which called for
serious consequences.

Q It didn't call for going to war.

Q Let me ask you a more fundamental question. The President -- according to
this report of this memo -- said to Prime Minister Blair that he didn't
expect that there would be any sectarian violence. That's obviously proven
-- he was disproven. That is, in fact, the case that there is sectarian
violence. Some worry about the prospects of civil war.

My question, though, is the President's judgments, this administration's
judgments about the war that did not come to pass, that created a
credibility problem with the American people with regard to how they view
this war, does that not hurt the President when he now says, we need
patience and we have to persevere?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, you made a very long statement there, and I'm
not accepting the premise of the beginning of your question that that's an
accurate reflection of things. We've talked about what we anticipated and
what we didn't anticipate and what we prepared for.

And I think credibility is about doing what you say you're going to do. We
did what we said we were going to do. Tyrants around the world know that we
mean what we say, because we followed through on the resolution that was
passed at the Security Council and held Saddam Hussein's regime to account.
And he has been removed from power. The world is better off because Saddam
Hussein is no longer in power.

We are working to transform a troubled region of the world, and that goes
directly to our own security. The Middle East has been a breeding ground
for terrorism. We had a false sense of stability because of previous
foreign policies of previous administrations. This President made the
decision after September 11th that we were going to take a comprehensive
approach to the war on terrorism, and that we were going to work to spread
freedom.

Q You're getting off point.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, it's very much on point.

Q Well, if I was too long-winded, let me just -- let me just be more
precise.

MR. McCLELLAN: Sure.

Q The President assumed incorrectly, hindsight tells us, that there would
not be sectarian violence after the invasion. Is that correct?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, there were certain things that we anticipated, and
certain things that we didn't anticipate. The President has talked publicly
about what some of those were. And we've also worked to adapt and adjust to
circumstances on the ground. Any time you're engaged in a war -- and the
President talked about this issue last week -- things aren't going to go
necessarily according to the plans. You've got to be flexible, you've got
to be able to adapt and adjust to the circumstances on the ground. And
that's exactly what we have done.

We know that the terrorists have made this the central front in the war on
terrorism. They want to spread sectarian violence and create civil war. But
the Iraqi political leaders and Iraqi religious leaders have come together,
and they said, we need to move forward, we need to continue to move forward
on forming a government that represents all Iraqis. The Iraqi army has held
together. They have shown that they can perform well and help restore calm
and restraint. And that's important, too. Now, there are certain areas
where they didn't. But I think you have to look at the full picture. And
just to make comments like that doesn't take a look at the full picture.

Jim, go ahead.

Q The tone of our diplomats regarding trade with China has gotten blunt --
much more blunt in recent months. And I'm wondering if this suggests that
there's a weariness within the administration with the carrot approach to
trade with China? And if so, what kind of a stick is the administration
willing to use?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, we have some officials, including
Cabinet Secretaries, that are visiting China as we speak, or on their way
there, if they're not there already. And they will be talking with Chinese
leaders about some of these issues and the importance of China continuing
to make progress and move forward on some of the commitments we've
discussed in the past. Those relate to currency issues, it relates to
international -- I'm sorry, intellectual property rights, certainly human
rights issues is an issue that we've continued to raise with China, as
well.

But it's a complex relationship. The President looks forward to visiting
with President Hu when he comes to the United States and talking about a
broad range of issues, issues where we're working together to address
common security threats and other issues where we would like to see more
progress. And I think part of the message that our Cabinet officials are
taking is that China needs to continue to move forward on these certain
areas.

Q Getting back, as to a stick. Right now, the only stick seems to be
Senator Schumer's and Lindsey Graham. Does the administration have
something --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President has made it very clear that's he's
committed to free trade. But he's also committed to fair trade. And we want
to see a level playing field. And there are some steps that China is
committed to. We want to see them continue to move forward on those steps.
I don't want to get ahead of the meetings that are taking place with our
Cabinet officials. I want to let those meetings take place. We'll be
talking directly with Chinese leaders about these issues. I'm sure there
are issues that the President is going to discuss with President Hu when he
is here, as well.

Q Can you give us a description of what sort of things the President is
doing right now in terms of working with lawmakers? Is the President making
phone calls? And what's the give and take back and forth with the Judiciary
Committee today?

MR. McCLELLAN: Are you talking about on immigration?

Q Yes.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, we've had a number of conversations and
meetings with congressional leaders. The President has met recently with a
number of congressional leaders. This is an issue that has come up because
it's a pressing legislative priority. Now we recognize this is going to
take some time to address this issue. It's a difficult issue. Otherwise it
would have already been solved. And Congress has acted and taken some
important steps when it comes to securing our borders and interior
enforcement, two things that the President talked about today. But the
President also believes it's important to include that temporary worker
program. He's going to continue --

Q Is he calling senators?

MR. McCLELLAN: There's no updates on calls that he makes. As you know, I
try to keep you updated on those when he does make them. But he will
continue, and he went out publicly today, obviously, to highlight the
importance of moving forward in a comprehensive way.

There are three key elements to fixing our immigration system, and they all
reinforce one another. The President believes that if you're going to truly
fix the system, you've got move forward on each of these elements. And
that's what he was highlighting today in his remarks.

Q Does the possibility --

MR. McCLELLAN: But I assure you that we're in close contact with
congressional leaders about moving forward on this priority.

Q And so what is the White House position, what is the President's view of
the possibility that an immigration bill will not come out of the Judiciary
Committee in the next day, and the Senate Majority Leader therefore would
put up strictly a border security bill? Does the President think that
that's still a good process step?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, certainly, addressing border security is something
that we're all committed to. I think Jim pointed that our earlier when he
was asking his question. I think all of us are committed to continuing to
take steps to strengthen our border. We have increased funding for border
security by some 66 percent since the President came into office. The
President talked today about how we've significantly increased the number
of Border Patrol agents, as well. And he also talked about the new
technologies that we're deploying along the border to help stop people from
coming across the border illegally. And he also talked about some of the
barriers we're putting place, whether they're vehicle barriers or fencing
in urban areas. Those are all important aspects. And we need to continue to
build upon that.

We've accomplished much, but there's much more to do. I would point you to
the results. There's some positive results we're seeing. And if you look at
the number of people that we have apprehended and returned over the course
of the administration, that's a fairly significant number, including
several hundred thousand criminals.

So I would view it as a good start, but the President recognizes that you
have to take a comprehensive approach if you're going to fix the system.

Q But you're not discouraging the Senate from moving forward with what
could be the Majority Leaders' bill?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President is encouraging Congress to move forward
in a comprehensive way, but it's still pretty early in the legislative
process.

Q So you are discouraging the Senate Majority Leader's bill?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I talk about what we're for and what we're doing. You're
asking me to talk about what we're not doing, and what we're against. I'm
encouraging Congress to move forward in a comprehensive way. That's what
the President did today in his remarks. That's what we will continue to do.
But certainly, when you ask about Senator Frist's legislation, I would
describe it as a good start to addressing this. But we have to do it in a
comprehensive way. And so we're pleased that the leaders in the Senate are
talking about moving forward on a temporary worker program, as well.

Go ahead, April.

Q Scott, on the President's temporary guest worker program, in 2005,
Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "Mexicans take jobs not even black
people want to do." And today, Secretary -- HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson
elaborated on the comment saying, "We did not like what Vicente Fox said,
but it has merits to it -- many of the jobs that Mexicans takes coming
across the border are the jobs that blacks, whites and Asians don't want."
Last year when Vicente Fox made his statement, the administration backed
away from it, denounced it and everything. Is the administration embracing
that comment now, in light of the Cancun meeting?

Q April, I haven't seen what Secretary Jackson said. And we did speak to
that issue at the time, I believe, as you just pointed out. What we're
doing is as we go into the discussions in Cancun, we'll be talking about
the importance of all of us meeting our responsibilities when it comes to
addressing immigration issues -- and that means border security, as well.

All of us have responsibilities to secure our borders and to address these
issues. And the President has a good relationship with President Fox. He
looks forward to talking with him about this issue, among others.

Q Those comments specifically?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q Those comments --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we addressed that at the time, April.

Q No, but will the President -- because there's a cloud over it now. The
administration distanced itself from it, and here you have an African
American department head embracing it.

MR. McCLELLAN: I haven't seen what he said today.

Q Well, I have the statements if you would like to hear them.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you can share that with me, and I'll take a look at it
later.

Go ahead, Ed.

Q Scott, on Iraq, the Manning Memo also alleges that in this private
meeting, the President told Prime Minister Blair that one option was to
assassinate Saddam Hussein. Did the President really contemplate that as an
option since it would be breaking U.S. law?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ed, this was a meeting that took place back in January of
2003. Even if I knew exactly what was said in that meeting, I wouldn't get
into discussing private conversations between world leaders like this.
Again, I reiterate to you, the comments that we were making publicly and
privately are fully consistent with one another.

Q Is the President concerned that the explosion today in Tal Afar -- that's
one of the places he highlighted last week where things were turning
around, there were bright spots, some of the good news --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you're asking me to make some sort of attack near Tal
Afar --

Q Yes, it's at least 30 people dead, 30 more wounded outside a recruitment
center.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't have all the facts surrounding that. I would also
encourage you to -- if such an attack did take place there, look at what
the motivations are. We know that the terrorists try to grab headlines, and
that they target progress to try to gain attention and to try derail the
transition to democracy. But I can't speak to this specific incident that
just took place today. I don't know all the facts regarding that. I think
that's best to direct to our military forces in Iraq.

Go ahead.

Q Scott, had the President decided on the 31st of January to go to war with
Iraq regardless of whether there was a second U.N. resolution, and
regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were found?

MR. McCLELLAN: We were preparing in case it was going to be necessary, but
we were continuing to pursue a diplomatic solution in that 2003 time
period. And all the -- there was a lot of public comments made at the time,
leading up to the decision to go in and use force, and remember, even 48
hours before we began Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein and his sons
were given one final opportunity to leave the country and avoid serious
consequences.

Q So would you dispute what's in this memo, which says that, in fact, that
decision had been made by January the 31st, and say that the President had
not decided to go to war?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think I was asked that earlier, and I think I
addressed that when I just said we were continuing to pursue a diplomatic
course. You can go back and look at all the public comments at the time.
The President made numerous public comments. You can look at other
officials in the administration and what we were saying, but Saddam Hussein
-- that's why I pointed back to -- remember, there's a December report, or
interim report by the weapons inspector, the United Nations weapons
inspector, and it showed that the regime was not coming clean.

We said that they were continuing their pattern of non-cooperation at the
time. And we also made it very clear that war was the last option, but if
the regime was not going to come clean, then we were prepared to move
forward and use force.

Q Did the President talk about several ways to provoke a confrontation with
Iraq?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think I addressed that question when Ed asked his
question.

Go ahead.

Q Scott, the Israeli elections are underway, or about to be underway. Does
the U.S. have any special message, especially for Israel's detractors, now
-- the situation with Hamas, al Qaeda and Israel and so forth?

MR. McCLELLAN: As you know, that's a matter for the Israeli people to
decide, and we'll let the elections take place and then we can talk about
it further at that point.

Q Are U.S. troops on any special alert?

MR. McCLELLAN: Any special alert in the Middle East? You can ask the
Pentagon.

Q Scott, on the Cancun meeting, what does the President want President Fox
to do to help the President further his immigration legislation here in
Congress? Is there anything that he's going to be asking of Fox to do?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, with both leaders, Prime Minister Harper and
President Fox, we have a much broader relationship and a deeper
relationship than just one issue. Immigration is an issue that all of us
need to work together to address, and all the leaders have, and all the
countries have responsibilities to meet when it comes to securing our
borders and making sure that people and goods can flow across the borders
freely, but also making sure that those who are trying to cross the border
to engage in criminal activity are not allowed to do so.

But, look, I'll come back to talking about the trip as we move forward in
the next day or two, and we can talk more about it at that point. The
President participated in some interviews earlier today, as well.

Go ahead, Les.

Q Scott, a two-part. I'd be very grateful if you could give us a
clarification of the President's statement in Cleveland, "I made it clear,
I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our
ally, Israel." And my question: This does not mean that we will withhold
such military might until after Israel is nuclear-bombed, does it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Les, I think that if you're bringing up the issue
relating to Iran and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, we are pursuing a
diplomatic solution to that matter. I think you're jumping way ahead of
things at this point --

Q No, the clarification -- we will protect Israel, we won't wait until
after they're bombed.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think there's anything to clarify. The President has
made that very clear before. They are a great friend and good ally, and the
President --

Q So it will be before they are bombed.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- has publicly expressed that view before.

Q Two months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in the case of
Lawrence vs. Texas, laws against sodomy are unconstitutional, Senator Rick
Santorum told the AP, if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to
consensual gay sex in your home, then you have the right to bigamy, incest,
and adultery, you have the right to anything. And my question: Does the
President disagree with this Republican Senator and will he ask the Justice
Department to oppose the pro-polygamy lawsuit, Bronson vs. Swenson, or not?

MR. McCLELLAN: Les, you might want to check with the Justice Department on
what involvement they may have in any particular case. I don't know about
--

Q I want to know what the President -- does he agree with Santorum?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think you've heard the President's views.

Q Scott, everything on the ground in Iraq is telling us that there's now a
process of what has been kind of a low-key ethnic cleansing where the
Shiites and the Sunnis are starting to face off, there are killings in the
night, everybody is looking on turf warfare to secure a certain turf.

MR. McCLELLAN: Everybody?

Q Well, look, in both -- now in the Kurdish area, we see the Kurds and the
Arabs and the surge of violence there, also indicating that they feel that
this unity is going to be very, very short-term. My question is, what role
do U.S. forces have in that kind of a situation? And what's to prevent them
from either having to take one of two sides in this kind of conflict, or
getting --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not going to agree with your characterization, first of
all. I think you're not taking a look at the complete picture. If you take
a look at the complete picture, you have an Iraqi -- elected leaders of the
Iraqi government that are in the process of moving forward on a forming a
government of national unity. It's important that they do that as quickly
as possible. The sense of urgency for that is all the more prevalent now in
the aftermath of some of the sectarian violence that has taken place.

I think the Iraqi people have made very clear that they want to chart a
future of freedom. We saw that when more than 11 million -- nearly 12
million Iraqi people showed up at the polls to cast their ballot for a
constitutional elected government. And now it's important that all leaders
continue to urge calm and restraint. That's what the religious leaders have
been doing, that's what Iraqi political leaders have been doing. And it's
important they move forward as quickly as possible.

Now, the President got asked about this question just last week, and he
made it very clear that it's Iraqi forces who are in the lead when it comes
to addressing these issues. And our commanders have pointed out the Iraqi
forces -- General Dempsey, most recently -- performed well.

Now, there are some areas where they may not have, but overall, they
performed well in the aftermath of some of the attacks that took place last
month, including the attack on the Golden Mosque.

Q There are some concerns, Scott, that if the situation continues to
develop with the killings and the divisions that these Iraqi forces, all of
whom belong to a specific religious group there, will simply take off and
take --

MR. McCLELLAN: It didn't happen in the aftermath of the attacks that took
place. The Iraqi army held together. The Iraqi political leaders came
together. The Iraqi religious leaders called for calm and restraint. So I'm
looking at what happened. And the Iraqi people took a look into the abyss
and they said, that's not what we want. And they want their government to
come together and form a unity government as quickly as possible. And
that's what we're urging them to do. Democracy is about compromise and
negotiation, and that's what's taking place right now. And they're trying
to work to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. That will help
address the security front, as well.

Go ahead.

Q Scott, before yesterday, the United States and Bulgaria signed an
agreement to establish three big military bases for ten years, and they
have decided to deploy 5,000-8,000 U.S. troops along the Greek borders.
Since the -- that the U.S. military presence in the Balkans is increasing
with -- recently with unusual speed, may we know the reasons of this new
U.S.-Bulgarians strategic and military cooperation? Do you anticipate any
enmity?

MR. McCLELLAN: Do I expect -- do I anticipate any what?

Q Enmity.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we talked about that cooperation when we made
that announcement the other day. I don't know if I have anything to add to
it. I'll be glad to take a look at it if I do.

Q And one more question on Kosovo. Since the Kosovo talks in Vienna March
17th failed again for the second time without producing any results, and to
restart again April 3rd, could you please comment, since we have thousands
of American troops in that volatile -- volatile area of the --

MR. McCLELLAN: Don't have an update beyond what we have recently said at
the State Department.

Go ahead, Nedra.

Q Yes, on the immigration. I wanted to clarify what the President said when
he said he opposes amnesty. Does that mean that he thinks that illegal
immigrants who are in this country and filling those jobs that he says are
important to our country should be charged with a crime for breaking
immigration laws? Or does he believe that they should be given these guest
worker permits?

MR. McCLELLAN: He believes that they would need to get in line just like
everybody else. That means they would get in the back of the line, because
there are people who are already waiting in line seeking citizenship.

But what we're talking about is a temporary worker program that would match
willing worker with willing employer, where an American is not wanting to
fill that job. The President also in his remarks called for increase in the
number of green cards, recognizing that where the current level is, is not
helping us address some of the issues regarding our immigration system.

Q But when he says get in the back of the line, he means while they stay
here in the United States, right?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President is firmly opposed to amnesty, and he
does not believe that we should provide an automatic path to citizenship.
There are people that are already waiting in line, there are people who
have come here legally, and anyone that gets in line needs to get in line
at the back -- at the back of the line.

Q But if he's opposed to amnesty, how does he propose that the United
States address the crime that they committed of breaking immigration laws
and sneaking into the country?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, these are all what the President talks about -- the
President laid out some clear principles for a temporary worker program,
and there are a lot of issues that we have to work through, in terms of the
details, with members of Congress, and that's what we're working to do.
These are some difficult issues to address. The President said that it's
going to require compromise and tough choices, and we'll continue working
with Congress as they move forward on legislation to address these issues.
But the President is firmly opposed to any kind of amnesty.

Q That's an interesting question, because on the guest worker part of it,
for those who are already here, that's what the guest worker program would
address -- not any kind of amnesty, but a way to say, you're here, you're
working, you're part of the workforce; let's give you some kind of legal
umbrella --

MR. McCLELLAN: Legalize it, right.

Q -- for a temporary period, at which point you'll have to go back or get
in the back of the line. But that's the idea, is that if you're already
here, you're illegal, you're undocumented, but you're working, this guest
program would like to give you some kind of registration, if nothing else.
Is that right?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it would be a temporary program, but it would --

Q Right, it's not amnesty, it's a temporary program.

MR. McCLELLAN: That's right. And the reason he talked about it, he believes
that giving any sort of amnesty would be unfair to those who are playing by
the rules and waiting in line. And so the President talked about that in
his remarks earlier today. But when we're talking about this temporary
worker program, there are a large number of undocumented immigrants in this
country. And the vast majority of those are coming here for one reason, and
that's simply to support their families back home. They have an opportunity
to help support their families back home.

And so one of the things that we recognize is that these are jobs that
Americans are not wanting to fill. This is a major problem in our
immigration system. And if we're going to fix it, then you have to have
some sort of mechanism there to address this issue, as well. And that's why
the President proposed a temporary worker program.

Peter, go ahead.

Q Scott, is there no concern that having an amnesty program would be
another incentive for another 11 million people --

MR. McCLELLAN: This isn't -- this is not. The President specifically said
that in his remarks. He said, this -- he is firmly opposed to any sort of
amnesty. We're talking about a temporary worker program.

Q I'm sorry, I meant to say temporary worker --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President -- remember, back when he announced the
principles, said that it would be everybody from that date previously, from
prior to the date that he announced it.

Now, we're working with Congress on the exact date, but for that very
reason, he made that one of his principles that from the date that he -- I
believe it was back in early '04 -- I'd have to check my recollection --
and he said that --

Q Is that going to be validated by a check stub, or something?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- it would be for anybody that was already in this country
as of that date, and that people after that date would not be eligible for
that temporary worker program.

Q And how would that be validated?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's one of the issues you would look to verify that, and
you would have mechanisms to verify that.

Rick, go ahead.

Q Scott, would the administration or the President consider the right of
automatic citizenship for people born in this country be part of this
immigration overhaul? Because if you have guest workers here, and they have
children here, are those children, then, automatically U.S. citizens?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q Would he like to see a change in the law now where people who are born in
this country under whatever circumstance are automatically U.S. citizens?
If you have a temporary worker program here where a couple is living and
working here, and they're supposed to return home, they have a child, and
the child is born here, that child, under the present law, will be an
American citizen --

MR. McCLELLAN: Right.

Q -- which would then complicate efforts on their repatriation back to
their home country along the line. So is there going to be any kind of a
discussion of changing automatic citizenship if they're born in the United
States?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you heard what the President proposed -- increase in
the number of green cards -- but his plan would not provide any automatic
citizenship or any automatic path to citizenship. He believes very strongly
in that.

Q Well, then their children would not automatically become citizens if they
are born in the United States?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think that's current law, as you pointed out. Yes. So
if you're born here in America, you're a citizen.

Q Thank you.

MR. McCLELLAN: Thank you.

END 12:55 P.M. EST

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060327-2.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)