Posted on 12/20/2004 8:52:26 PM PST by bayourod
WASHINGTON -- President Bush today renewed his call for a guest worker program for immigrants seeking employment in the United States, saying the Border Patrol shouldn't be chasing "goodhearted people who are coming here to work."
Bush has wanted such a program since taking office four years ago. But the idea was sidetracked by the Sept. 11 attacks and then left on the sideline because the White House did not want to tackle such a controversial issue during an election year.
Bush faces a tough fight in Congress. He will have to persuade Republicans that his program does not amount to amnesty for the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, and negotiate with Democrats who want any plan to provide workers a path to legal status.
"I fully understand the politics of immigration reform," Bush said at a news conference. "I mean, I was governor of Texas. Right there on the front lines of border politics."
Bush said creating a program where foreigners who want to work can legally enter the country will take some of the pressure off Border Patrol agents whose jobs have taken on greater importance since the terrorist attacks.
"We want our Border Patrol agents chasing crooks and thieves and drug runners and terrorists, not goodhearted people who are coming here to work," he said.
He also said the program will recognize a reality that foreigners are "doing jobs Americans won't do; take the pressure off of employers so they're not having to rely upon false IDs; cut out the coyotes who are the smugglers of these people."
Bush stressed that he does not favor automatic citizenship for immigrant workers.
"If somebody who is here working wants to be a citizen, they can get in line," he said.
Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum, said he was encouraged by Bush's comments.
"The bottom line is you have a conservative Republican president with political capital standing up and saying, `I want to fix the system,'" Sherry said. "That is unprecedented and that could set the stage for historic reform."
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Bush's view of the issue is provincial.
"It's kind of embarrassing sometimes when the president keeps claiming he has special insight into immigration because he was governor of Texas and he doesn't. The mantra that immigrants do jobs Americans won't do is widely believed, but is economic gibberish," said Krikorian, whose group advocates for less immigration and tougher enforcement.
Let's hope for the sake of America, it is not just more Washington double-talk...
"After first denying it, Mr. Krikorian was forced to admit that CIS is a spin-off of FAIR.
In fact, CIS, FAIR, NumbersUSA, Project-USA and more than a half-dozen similar groups that Republicans have become disturbingly comfy with, were founded or funded (or both) by John Tanton, a retired doctor in Michigan. In addition to trying to stop immigration to the U.S., appropriate population-control measures for Dr. Tanton and his network include promoting China's one-child policy, sterilizing Third World women and wider use of RU-486.
FAIR, where Mr. Krikorian once worked, is run by Dan Stein and shares advisers and personnel with CIS and other members of the Tanton nexus. As our Jason Riley noted in a March op-ed, "By Dr. Tanton's own reckoning, FAIR has received more than $1.5 million from the Pioneer Fund, a white-supremacist outfit devoted to racial purity through eugenics."
Excuse me, Sir, but they aren't. They are chasing illegal immigrants, who skipped over a porous border for work, to sell drugs, to steal, rape, and murder, and to get on various governmental rolls to get money for nothing. And IMO you just undercut them.
Playing word games doesn't change the facts. People who want to come here to work should be allowed to. Labor is an asset, not a liability.
But if your only problem with Mexican laborers is that they are coming here illegally, then you should welcome Bush's plan to allow them to come here legally, right?
Or can you now come up with another feeble excuse to dislike them?
We'll just agree to disagree. Have a Merry Christmas.
No. You're just playing more word games. No one is being granted amnesty from any crimes they have committed.
I could be swayed to support a program for "guest workers" so long as there are extremely strict (and enforced) criteria for the program. This would include:
1. Very, VERY strict criteria on the types of work they may do.
2. Absolutely NO family members may join them during their employment period in the USA ( and by this I mean NONE! NO wives, no children no parents. NONE!! as in ZERO!).
3.They MUST be paid via check (NO CASH!!) and have ALL taxes garnished from their wages at a higher rate than US citizens pay.
4. They MUST visit an Immigration/"Guest worker" Social worker every 2 weeks (sort of like a probation officer - if they don't show up 2 times, a warrant is issued for their arrest, once apprehended they are deported and lose eligibility for citizenship forever).
5.They MUST enter the country with a valid guest worker visa (valid in increments of 3 months, six months, 9 months or one year - no more) and ALL arrangements for employment must be made PRIOR to their arrival through a "Guest worker employment agency".
6.These workers will not be entitled to ANY government benefits or subsidies. Employers may choose to provide benefits such as basic healthcare or housing but are not required to do so. If this benefit IS provided, only the actual worker may be covered and only during his period of employment. Any costs that are not covered by the employer provided benefits would be garnished from the wages of the guest worker.
I think that's about it...for now. I may come up with a few more ideas for what could be deemed an acceptable "guest worker" program to me.
As an old girlfriend once told me, everything's negotiable.
hmmmmm, would that "line" be anything like the "line" they are suppose to get in to come into the country in the first place???
How do they expect to get a good white collar executive job with a company, if that company doesn't exist because they don't have enough blue collar laborer employees?
:::garble:::zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Or relocate overseas? Or outsource to overseas companies? What good does that do the American economy or their legal employees who would lose their jobs.
President Bush's guest worker program may keep U.S. companies from leaving, outsourcing or folding. It may allow new companies to start up, former U.S. companies to relocate back to the U.S. and companies to do work in-house that they are now outsourcing overseas.
Everyone of goodwill wins.
please 'un-fix' the 'latest articles summary'
Clicking on This: "President renews call for guest worker program
Posted by bayourod
On Bloggers & Personal 12/20/2004 10:52:26 PM CST · 16 replies · 40+ views
The Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Dec. 20, 2004 "
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took me to post #1, instead of post #16.
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