Bush Administration to Curb Illegal Immigration...Finally

All you have to do enforce the laws already on the books. After not enforcing the law for years now Bush cynically wants to make the immigration issue his own. I think it's a little to late, George:

Farmers and other employers who rely heavily on immigrant labor said Friday that they could be driven out of business by the Bush administration's plans to crack down on workers whose Social Security numbers do not match their names, and businesses that hire them.

Administration officials said the stepped-up enforcement would begin in 30 days.

Guess What? Both branches of government are to blame:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said they were forced to beef up enforcement of existing laws after Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration-reform bill.

"We're going as far as we possibly can without Congress acting," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Now that wasn't so difficult. If you had done that from the beginning maybe so many Americans wouldn't be as mad as they are. But that's the point. You didn't enforce the law for so long because business profited from illegal alien labor. Now the Republicans are in trouble because you didn't count on the outrage of the American people:

Recognizing the crackdown could hurt some industries, particularly agriculture, Gutierrez said the Labor Department will try to make existing temporary worker programs easier to use and more efficient.

Chertoff also said he will try to use the department's regulatory authority to raise fines on employers by about 25 percent. Current fines are so modest that some companies consider them a cost of doing business, the agency said.