Why did G.W. Bush introduce immigration to the agenda?

Question

In January 2004, G.W. Bush brought up the Mexican immigration issue from out of the blue. There had been no major talk about immigration, no major newspaper articles, no major immigration problem that had occurred. So, what was the administration's purpose? Was it economic in nature? Were they searching for cheap labor from Mexico? Or did they feel a need to engage in the age old "divide and conquer" tactic against the working class?

"You can't have capitalism without racism; and you cannot have racism without capitalism" -- Malcolm X

Answer 1

I'd presume it was a distraction tactic to try and get people's minds off the Iraq 'war' - if only temporarily.
By the way: in response to "answer man" and his mean-spirited answer about hating illegal immigrants, I wonder if he's descended from native American Indians.
If not, then he must also "hate" all of his own ancestors and relatives, since THEY, too, were among America's first "illegal immigrants". They started coming over here from Europe 400 years ago to escape hatred, religious persecution and tyrannical governments. They never bothered to learn the Indians' language or adopt the Indians' culture and customs. Instead, the cheated the Indian out of his land, massacred whole tribes, and eventually put the survivors on reservations where they would be resigned to live heart-breakingly desolate lives. As these new "illegal immigrants" moved westward into "their" new land, they disregarded the native Indians' sacred respect for the Earth's resources, slaughtering buffalo just for the 'sport' of it and squandering land, water and timber, a process that continues to this day as people like "answer man" follows in the footsteps of his ancestors, the first American "illegal immigrants". -RKO- 07/15/07

Answer 2

The old bait and switch. The Iraq war was going badly, so he introduces a "new" issue to distract the public. He did the same thing with Iraq: the public started to question why they hadn't yet found bin Laden, and POOF, a new war to worry about!

Answer 3

Because Bush is a f*cking idiot, plain and simple! I hate illegal immigrants and it serves them right when they die in the desert trying to enter the U.S. illegally. All they do for the U.S. IF they make it over here are raise our taxes, increase our healthcare costs and spread diseases that weren't in the U.S. until they started pouring in. They are just as stupid as Bush is. I guess the illegal immigrants are "Bush's people", that's why he introduced immigration to the agenda.

P.S. RKO...Wake Up!!! If you like paying higher taxes, higher healthcare costs and the possibility of contracting more diseases, then you are just as stupid. Those f*ckers come over here and on May 1st of every year, they protest in OUR streets with that "Day Without an Immigrant" crap to try to shut down our economy for a day? How dare they! The have no f*cking rights here! I'm all for immigration IF it's done the legal way, but this illegal immigration crap has to end!

Answer 4

It was an attempt to distract us from the real problems of our country. Bush wanted to have and Oggie Boogies man to scare the American public and distract us from the real troubles. If you need other examples look to the book 1984 by George Orwell.

Answer 5

So, your saying that politicians can't bring up topics now that aren't relevant at that time?

Immigration is very important. I am sick of illegals coming to this country and taking our jobs.

Why did Clinton randomly fire missiles into Iraq? To divert attention away from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Everyone blames Bush for every move he makes but they don't look at democrats and their actions and faults. Even when Bush brings up a topic that is important to this nation he gets bashed for it.

Oh, and he definitely talked about it before 2004:

http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive_Index/Bush_Administration_2002_Immigration_Budget_Proposal.html
http://immigration.about.com/library/blBushSpeech71001.htm
http://www.4president.org/issues/bush2000/bush2000immigration.htm