Text 2637, 245 rader
Skriven 2006-05-16 23:34:26 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0605168) for Tue, 2006 May 16
====================================================
===========================================================================
Interview of the Vice President by Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
May 16, 2006

Interview of the Vice President by Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show
Via Telephone



1:32 P.M. EDT

Q Once again, we are thrilled and honored to have with us the Vice
President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Mr. Vice President, welcome
back. As always, great to have you here.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon, Rush.

Q All right, question: Is the President -- are you and the President, the
administration aware of the dissatisfaction on the whole issue of illegal
immigration that exists not just within the Republican base, but within the
country at large?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, we are, I think, Rush. In my travels out around
the country I've found for a long time now immigration -- illegal
immigration, in particular -- to be a big issue. And it's true no matter
what part of the country you go to. Of course, you find it down along the
border in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico. But I also was out in the Seattle
area the other day and talked to several folks out there, and it was a
significant issue up there, too.

It takes different forms different places around the country, but it's a
tough issue. It's complicated. It's important. So there are, I think,
legitimate concerns out there on the part of a lot of folks.

Q Why do you think so many people -- and I'm just judging from telephone
calls I've had, and when I make trips to California like you just
mentioned, I can't get away from the subject. It's all anybody wants to
talk about, particularly in Southern California. Why is it that so many
people don't think that the steps the President is outlining and has
outlined over the years will address the seriousness of the problem?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I think part of it is that a lot of folks aren't
aware of what's already being done. I mean the President pointed out in his
speech, for example, that since we got to office, we have arrested, turned
back, sent back across the border some 6 million illegals. That's a huge
number. I mean, there's a huge amount of effort that's gone into that.

We've had a very significant increase in resources. It's just that the
problem is so big, there's still a lot more to be done. And to date, we've
not yet been successful in getting a comprehensive approach out of the
Congress that would allow us to address some of these issues. So we've been
doing what we could administratively. We've been doing what we could with
appropriations bills. But in terms of basic legislation, we've still got a
ways to go. The House has acted. The Senate has not yet acted, and then of
course, we'll have to get something out of conference. And what the
President did last night was lay out a fairly precise program in terms of
what he'd like to see.

Q Well, let's talk about what's going on in the Senate. There are a number
of bills there. The compromise bill we're being told is Hagel-Martinez, two
Republicans proposing this bill. Robert Rector at Heritage and Senator
Sessions, who I know you respect, both did joint analyses of this bill and
what they project using conservative estimates is anywhere from over the
next 20 years, 110 million to 217 million legal immigrants entering the
country, and illegals as part of that number, being granted legal status.
What is the public policy purpose for doing that in these kinds of numbers?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I haven't seen their analysis, Rush. And at this point,
of course, what you have in the House bill is specifically a border
enforcement bill. What you've got in the Senate bill is a bill that goes
after border enforcement but also in the -- you've got Hagel-Martinez, and
there's a Kennedy-McCain. There are a lot of proposals kicking around. The
Senate has not finalized its package yet, so we don't know what's going to
come out of the conference. Obviously, we're going to want to look at it
very carefully to make sure it does achieve the objectives the President
has talked about.

Q Well, if you haven't seen it, let me give you the bare essentials.
Senator Sessions did his own analysis. It's a 614-page bill. I know it's
got to be conference, but this is a pretty radical starting point. They
have anywhere from 117 million to 217 million legal Americans -- that's
two-thirds of the population -- over the next 20 years if this bill were to
become law, and if the President signed it as is.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: These are people who would attain legal status?

Q No, this is a combination of both. This is an increase in the number of
legal immigrants, as well as added to illegals who would then be made legal
over that 20-year time frame. And it also allows for exponential growth
because these people would be allowed to bring in their family members, as
well.

And one of the big concerns here is the strain this would put on an already
stretched social safety welfare net and this sort of thing. And these
numbers are just striking to me. Add two-thirds of the country's population
in 20 years -- I don't think we can handle that financially and certainly
not in an assimilation way.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Right. Well, if that's the case, I would hope that
would inform the debate and that Congress will consider those kinds of
impacts very carefully before they finally pass something. We'll certainly
weigh in on it.

Q Well, Senator Sessions is -- I think his floor debate today is he spent
some time really working the numbers. And he thinks most senators aren't
even aware of these numbers. And he's going to do his best to make them
aware during the debate. So hopefully that's true.

Now, let's talk about the National Guard. Six thousand Guardsmen, what's
the length of time that it is expected they will be needed?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the total proposal is to run for one year in
terms of using the National Guard. And over that period of time -- we've
added some 3,000 Border Patrol since we got here; we're going to increase
that by an additional 6,000. That's a 50-percent increase in the Border
Patrol over where we are today.

And the National Guard would be, in effect, to supplement what's there
already in terms of the Border Patrol during that period of time while you
recruit and train additional Border Patrol officers. The Guardsmen is a
temporary measure. Units, it is expected, would go down as part of their
regular training rotation. And this would be for up to 6,000 at any one
time. The way they'd handle their annual training exercise, would be go
down in support of the Border Patrol themselves.

Q Let me ask you this on behalf of my audience, simply because of the
number of emails. People don't think that this number of 6,000 -- which
probably will add up to 2,000 or 3,000 on duty at any given time -- is
actually going to make much of an impact. What would you say to them?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I'd say it's not just about the National Guard.
You've already got a large number of folks working down there under the
auspices of the Border Patrol. We've got big investments going in now in
terms of additional technology, in terms of sensors and aerial vehicles --
unmanned aerial vehicles and so forth, as well as fences.

One of the very useful things the Guard can do is what they did there in
San Diego a few years when they installed a section of fence there, that's
turned out to be a very effective -- that particular section has been very
effective. Basically it was built by Guard troops.

So there are a lot of things they can do to support the effort and to beef
up the effort that's already underway. And I think that's the intention
with respect to the Guard. It's not a be-all and end-all of the operation.
I think a lot of our folks who sign up for military service don't sign up
to go stand on the border for two or three years of active duty. But this
is a way to use the resources of the National Guard to support the
professionals who are otherwise involved in that activity. We think it
makes sense. It has been done before to some extent in the
counter-narcotics area. It's not a new concept to have the Guard working
the border in support of federal officials.

Q As all of you in the administration discuss the issue and inform to your
plan, do you ever -- has it ever -- has a wall, an actual wall ever been
given serious consideration?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It is given serious consideration -- not a wall, for
example, from ocean to ocean. There are a lot of places out there where it
doesn't make sense. There are other places where it does. I'm told -- I'm
not an expert in this by any means -- but that when you get into built-up
urban areas, fences -- security barriers might be a better word for it --
are, in fact, an important part of the overall plan and need to be part of
it.

There are other areas where you got vast spaces out there where you need
other kinds of arrangements. You need roads to be able to patrol. You can
use remote cameras. You can use unmanned aerial vehicles. It's partly a
matter of getting technology to it, as well, too. But it is a very
complicated problem. We're talking just about one piece of it, just the
border security part of it. But you've also got to address, I think, some
of the basic economic incentives that attract people in the first place,
all those folks who want to come here for the jobs that they can find
working in the United States for a lot more than they can make in Mexico or
someplace in Central America.

We think you've got to address all those aspects and facets of the problem.
And where appropriate, fences or security barriers make good sense. But I
think the experts got to go through and figure out what's the best
technique or procedure for each part of the border.

Q Let me ask you a quick political question, two prongs to it. The Dubai
Ports deal, American people spoke out loudly against it, "we don't want any
part of it," it got killed. The illegal immigration deal is generating just
as much negative response, but the American people are not getting the
reaction -- the same reaction from government to that, that they got on the
Dubai Ports deal -- a little confused, asking questions, "what's different
here, we're still talking security."

Second thing is, Democrats, Mr. Vice President, are, frankly, getting away
with being total bystanders and spectators on this. They offer no solution
themselves, yet they continue to sit around and criticize the
administration and the Republicans over this. Is there a plan to deal with
them politically on this?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we're -- it is a very tough issue. There's no
question about it. You mentioned the Dubai Ports deal, Rush. That was --
created a firestorm of controversy. And so Congress quickly backed
provisions that would have made it impossible to go forward. And of course,
the folks at Dubai Ports withdrew their proposal.

The fact is that -- from the perspective of the United Arab Emirates and so
forth, I've worked closely with those folks. They've been very good allies
of ours. And I don't want to go back and redo the whole Dubai Ports
operation, but the fact of the matter is, I thought there was a very strong
emotional reaction there. I can understand the emotional reaction, but it
didn't bear much resemblance to the basic fundamental facts.

What we have here -- I suppose there's a difference between trying to
govern and solve a major problem, which is what the President and those of
us who work for him are trying to do, versus the Democrats in this case who
don't have any responsibilities, or at least aren't willing to take any
responsibilities. They want to sit on the sidelines and take potshots. This
is an important problem for us to deal with. We got some 11 million or 12
million illegals in the country. It is a national security problem. It's
also an economic problem. If you could round all those folks up tomorrow
and put them back over the border, you'd have a big hole in your work
force.

It is not an easy, simple proposition. If it was, it would have been solved
a long time ago. It's one of those tough, intractable problems where you're
going to make progress three yards and a cloud of dust. We need to get
started. We need to get the border secured. That's our top priority, but
then we need to also deal with these other aspects of the problem.

Q Mr. Vice President, thanks for your time. I wish we had a little bit
more, but I know you're on a tight schedule. And it's a thrill with
whatever time we have with you whenever. So thanks very much for being with
us now, and we look forward to the next time.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: All right, it's good to talk to you, Rush. You render a
great service out there by hosting these debates.

Q Thank you, sir, very much.

END 1:45 P.M. EDT

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060516-8.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)