Jim Inhofe: “Edmundo Garcia said he had heard that the new Bush immigration plan, which would grant work visas to millions of illegal…”

“Edmundo Garcia said he had heard that the new Bush immigration plan, which would grant work visas to millions of illegal immigrants inside the United States and to others who can prove they have a job, was `amnesty,' and he wondered why he was arrested.'' He said he would try to cross [the border from Mexico to the U.S. through the Sonoran Desert] again in a few days. This quote from the New York Times on May 23, 2004, shows just how bad things have gotten since the administration's initial immigration policy proposal was announced. The New York Times article goes on to say: Apprehensions of crossers in the desert south of Tucson have jumped 60 percent over the previous year. Nearly 300,000 people were caught trying to enter the U.S. through the desert border since last October 1st (that's October 2003).'' It continues: After a four-year drop, apprehensions which the Border Patrol uses to measure human smuggling are up 30 percent over last year along the entire southern border, with over 660,000 people detained from October 1st through the end of April. There are an estimated 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, with about 1 million new illegal aliens coming into this country every year. Legal immigration is even at unprecedented levels about five times the traditional levels. We now have about 1.2 million legal immigrants coming into this country each year, as opposed to an average of about 250,000 legal immigrants before 1976. S.…”