Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas It wasnt even attacked said Brad Bailey a Texas restauranteur & Nassau Bay (TX) City Councilman who pushed for inclusion of Texas Republicans guest-worker program in the National Republican Party Platform.
Bailey was expecting immigration hard-liners to go after the proposed temporary worker program already adopted by the Texas GOP because previous National Party Platforms have said illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans.
Watch Mayor Art Martinez of Von Ormey and Nassau Bay City Councilman Brad Bailey as they join Insiders Jim Cardle to talk about Immigration Reform Border Security & Jobs in Texas.
Businesses dispute that statement saying there are many jobs such as land-scaping in-house cleaning services or fruit-picking that Americans wont do. But Republicans in Tampa already working on the National Partys Platform are balancing disparate opinions on immigration by taking a tough stance on illegal immigrants already in the United States while also calling for a new temporary foreign worker program.Complaining about the problem is no longer working. Republicans need to lead in repairing our nations immigration policy Bailey said on Monday in an e-mail to supporters of a guest-worker program.The Republican National Committees 2012 platform on immigration adopted on Tuesday calls for a legal
and reliable source of foreign labor through a new guest-worker program.
The Republican platform also seeks long-term detention for dangerous but undeportable aliens and proposes to make gang membership a deportable offense.
The Hispanic vote is in play in the general election and how Republicans handle the immigration question will be a critical factor in determining whether conservative Hispanic voters can be convinced to cast their votes for Mitt Romney.
It is typical of electoral policy platforms to be vague on details -- this isnt legislation after all. Its the tone that counts.
Note the crime-related wording for gangs and detention reinforcing an idea important to Republicans: that they are tougher on illegal immigration than President Obama.
Hispanics as a group tend to be more conservative than traditional Democrats; half identify themselves as independent according to a recent Gallup poll. But two-thirds of them voted for President Obama in 2008 in part because he promised to push for a broad immigration overhaul that would create a path to 
citizenship for some illegal immigrants.
Some Republican strategists worry that harsh rhetoric from Republicans about immigration will scare those independent Hispanics away.
The inclusion of a guest-worker program in the GOP platform marks a victory for business-oriented Republicans who are worried that a strict enforcement-only approach to immigration will ruin certain industries such as agriculture which relies heavily on undocumented immigrant labor.
It was brutal said Bailey the founder of the free-market nonprofit group The Texas Immigration Solution who is working aggressively for businesses access to foreign labor.
Im a rookie. I didnt know anybody. I was stopping people during bathroom breaks Bailey said.
Bailey is working within a party that has struggled for years to balance its commitment to the rule of law which sometimes conflicts with businesses consistent use of immigrant labor both legal & illegal with the fact that some 12 million illegal immigrants are already work in the United States.
Yet Republicans chafe at any policy that would ease off on punishment for immigration violations.
I think the president needs to be cautious; I think what hes done with his recent announcemnt is just drop several hundred-thousand workers … as compettion to U.S. workers in the middle of a big recession" says Mayor Art Martinez of Von Ormey Texas.
Obamas plan is a temporary solution to get him through November. Ours is a long-term solution to get us over the broken system that we have today says Nassau Bay City Councilman Bailey.
I think when people wake up & realize Im a U.S. citizen I just graduated from college I have $150000 in student loans and now I have to compete with 150000 non-citizen workers it (President Obamas temporary young workers program) may not be as popular in the long-run" said Mayor Martinez of Von 
Ormey.
Watch Mayor Art Martinez of Von Ormey and Nassau Bay City Councilman Brad Bailey as they join Insiders Jim Cardle to talk about Immigration Reform Border Security & Jobs in Texas.
