It has been a busy news day, but I can’t let President Bush’s appalling comments about law-abiding, pro-immigration enforcement Americans pass without comment. As reported in the Washington Times:

President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as “vigilantes.”
He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

More than 1,000 people — including 30 pilots and their private planes — have volunteered for the Minuteman Project, beginning next month along the Arizona-Mexico border. Civilians will monitor the movement of illegal aliens for the month of April and report them to the Border Patrol.

Mr. Bush said after yesterday’s continental summit, with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, that he finds such actions unacceptable.

“I’m against vigilantes in the United States of America,” Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference. “I’m for enforcing the law in a rational way.”

Yeah? How? By breaking his pledge to beef up border security personnel and refusing to fully fund increases in the Border Patrol, detention space, and interior enforcement?

By agreeing to a “totalization” arrangement with Mexico that may siphon off Social Security funds to illegal aliens at a cost to overburdened U.S. taxpayers of an estimated $345 billion over the next 20 years?

By forgetting his pledge to a slain deputy’s wife to hunt down a fugitive illegal alien killer harbored by Mexico and allowing countless other fugitive criminals to escape extradition?

By embracing the use of bogus “matricula consular cards” by illegal aliens to open bank accounts and board planes?

By espousing an amnesty plan that will reward millions of immigration law-breakers and their employers, unleash unprecedented benefits and document fraud, and raise illegal immigration to yet greater levels?

If this is “rational,” count me in with the crazy “vigilantes.”

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More negative reviews for President Bush’s comments from…

La Shawn Barber: “Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Mexico’s president Vicente Fox probably stood there smiling, pleased that his American pal is trained so well.”

Polipundit: “This from a president who has allowed illegal immigration to increase after the September 11, 2001, attacks.”

Jeff Naylor: “I agree with you, President Bush. We should rationally enforce the law and that credentialed law enforcement officers ought to do so. Yet, you refuse to do it. If the borders were being policed as they should, hundreds or thousands of private citizens wouldn’t feel the need to ‘help’ you do it.”