Posted on 12/09/2004 10:02:15 AM PST by nanak
12 Questions the White House Must Answer About Bush's Temporary Worker Plan
President Bush announced in a meeting with Mexico's President Vicente Fox in November that he will give "high priority" in 2005 to his guest worker plan that will grant legal status to the four to six million Mexican nationals (and others) now working in the United States illegally. That proposal was first announced in January of 2004 as a set of "principles."
However, since it was never introduced in Congress as legislation, no details are known about the plan. The public needs answers to the many questions raised by the proposal. Among those questions are the following:
QUESTIONS ABOUT AMNESTY
1. The president says his plan does not offer amnesty to lawbreakers, but if an unlawful act is forgiven and not penalized, is that not the same as amnesty? Isn't it amnesty if people who entered our country illegally are not required to go home before applying for a work permit?
2. Why is it not reasonable to believe that offering a "legal route to employment" for people who entered the country illegally will only encourage millions more to follow the same path in the expectation that they, too, will eventually be offered legal status? Is The White House aware that the National Border Patrol Council, which represents rank and file Border Patrol agents, says the president's plan will produce another surge in illegal alien traffic?
NATIONAL SECURITY
3. The president says that his plan will free up the Border Patrol to catch drug smugglers and terrorists. In view of the very real terrorist threat facing our nation and the certainty that terrorists are well aware of how easy it is to cross our open borders, would it not be more sensible and much safer for the country to first make our borders secure and then experiment with new guest worker programs, rather than the other way around?
4. What about the 150,000 people coming across our borders each year from outside Mexico, hundreds of them from countries on the State Department's watch list of nations known to harbor terrorists? Why is border security taking a backseat to a temporary worker program?
JOBS
5. The president says his temporary worker plan will be limited to "jobs Americans won't do." But since willingness to do any job is always relative to the wages being offered for that job, isn't it true that millions of jobs will be lost by Americans to foreign labor willing to work at a lower wage? When an employer lowers the wage of a job so only a foreign worker will take the job, as is already happening in construction trades and many other occupations, how can anyone say this is not taking jobs away from Americans?
6. The president frequently describes his plan as one that "will match willing workers with willing employers." Since his plan puts no limits on the types of jobs to be included, isn't it likely that employers will find additional millions of "willing workers" to fill millions of jobs at lower wages?
WHAT IS A "TEMPORARY WORKER"?
7. The president says his plan will allow "temporary workers" to take jobs for a three year term, renewable to six years. If a worker signs up for the program to obtain legal employment and works six years, but then does not want to go home because he now has a wife and also three children born in the United States, will the plan require him to go home? If he returns home, what happens to his wife and children?
8. If the temporary worker is not required to go home after his term of employment expires, then isn't it more accurate to call the president's plan a new immigration program with built-in preference for immigrants from Mexico and Central America? If a "temporary worker" is allowed to file an application for citizenship and to remain in the United States after his temporary work permit expires, is this not really an immigration program and not a temporary worker program?
ENFORCEMENT POLICIES
9. The president says his plan will include stepped up enforcement of labor laws to punish employers who continue to hire illegal workers. But isn't it true that this same promise was made to Congress and the American people in 1986 and that promise was never kept?
10. Since current laws against hiring illegal workers are virtually unenforceable, what specific changes is the president proposing to curtail and penalize this employment practice? Will employers be required to verify a valid Social Security number (available to any legal worker) before offering employment? Will Social Security cards be made fraud-proof? Will illegal workers who use phony Social Security cards or other people's numbers be deported and not merely fired and allowed to seek a different job as is the case today?
11. The president says that offering a legal way to find work in the U.S. will bring an end to the border problems. But if our borders are not made truly secure, won't millions of desperate people continue to enter illegally way instead of waiting in line for a work permit?
COMPETENCE AND CAPABILITIES OF OUR ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
12. If today's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot locate the 400,000 "absconders" who have already been ordered deported, including almost 100,000 criminal aliens, and if this enforcement agency can't intercept and deport the criminal aliens already incarcerated in our jails, nor the two million student, tourist, and other "visa overstays," why should anyone believe they will be willing and able to locate and deport an additional six to eight million "temporary workers" if these workers choose to stay when their permit expires?
it's really not rocket science folks,
pity that W and the rest of the GOP hasn't figured it out yet...
Why don't we just annex Mexico!! Turn their States into Our States!!
Yes, it is a sad day for America. The day when politics becomes more important than citizenship, our laws, our borders, and our government's dedication to the people it is SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT.
I have said, and will continue to say, that Washington is totally out of control. They are NOT doing their job. Washington has become a politically-based profession, as opposed to a government for the people and by the people.
The one thing that our great founders and framers missed -- the evil and ugly concept of the PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN. And the people of the USA continue to tolerate it...
Hey if they give a bunch of illegals amnesty, then I want my green card within the next 6 months...I've been at the immigration game legally for almost 5 years now...giving amnesty to them and not to me is like me getting kicked in the balls by a whole squad of marines...
[/rant !!!! argh !!!
why cant we get a republican president thats actually a conservative and doesnt have some wacko spread democracy to the world plan? bush is a joke and we can only thank the democrats for putting a bigger joke up against him.
Ditto!!!!
The wisdom of your post,,,,the same words I have been screaming at the bots for so long, only to be met with flames..
Ignorance is bliss I guess for them.
Bush has been in office almost four full years. In that time frame the President has reorganized the INS and Border Patrol agencies into the Dept of Homeland Sceurity. The feds have increased the size of the border patrol and more agents have led to more illegal crossings being stopped. Improvement, yes.
I think its fair to say that not all has been done to reduce illegal border crossings. One more time. The borders should be sealed shut. Employers who knowingly hire illegals should be punished under existing law. And all government welfare to illegals should be stopped immediately.
It's quite obvious why these three steps haven't been undertaken by the Bush administration in the last four years and sadly, never will be properly addressed. As with most politicians, the President supports the governments open border policy, the right of employers to hire cheap foreign labor and the continuence of welfare payments to illegal aliens. And the President's guest worker proposal is nothing but back door amnesty for illegals.
The vast majority of Americans oppose the President on all four issues. 80% of Americans oppose amnesty for illegals.
Of course they've figured it out.
They've figured out that importing millions of illegals that will work off the books for much less than anyone else is good for business. The large multinationals (ConAgra, ADM, Tyson, et al) love illegals. Not to mention the construction and service industries.
Its all about the Benjamins baby!
well the GOP may be in for a rude awakening starting in November 2006...
cause the last time I checked the majority still rules. LOL
and the majority is not going to be happy about the country be overrun with illegals...
one more 9/11 and W will have the migrane of his life!
...and we will elect MR TANCREDO as our next PRESIDENT in 2008.
Remember: Tom Tancredo for President 2008 = Our last hope to save AMERICA
Thanks for the welcome!
Currently we're classified as AOS (adjustment of status) from non-immigrant to immigrant...
Probly see a green card in 18-36 more month...
Welcome to FR and the USA!
bump!
Maybe. But ONLY as the Republican nominee. If he runs as a third party candidate it will ensure that we get Hillary for president in '08.
If you pay a fine for speeding, is that an amnesty?
Irrefutably, yes.
If a tresspasser is allowed to continue tresspassing, but legally, is that amnesty?
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