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To: inquest
I notice you keep avoiding the point about letting illegals become guest workers. That's the biggest point of controversy with the President's plans.

OK, I'll get right to that point. We now have at least 10M (no one knows the exact number) Mexican and South American workers in this country. They're all over, not just in border states. They're doing jobs that American born citizens won't do. Please don't try to tell me that in areas where the unemployment rate is <4%, Americans are lined up to take jobs as busboys, hotel or office cleaners, or lawn care workers. Our economy depends on workers like those.

We can't replace them all overnight with 10M who have gone through a legal guest worker program. That would just give them, and their employers, more incentive to hide.

I don't see that we have any choice but to make it possible for these people to get some sort of legal status.
Our previous guest worker program limited the time they could stay here, made them leave dependents behind, and linked their stay to the job (they came for one job, and if they left it, or the job ended, they went back). Even more importantly, it made the employers responsible for the guest workers. Having employers keep track of guest workers is far more efficient than setting up a huge gov't bureaucracy.

So, to summarize, I do think illegals should have a chance to become guest workers with employer sponsorship, and with the same rules (limited stay, no dependents, and no path to full citizenship) as ones who would come here under a program.
Our economy and sheer practicality both make it the only reasonable way to proceed.

69 posted on 02/04/2006 6:36:29 PM PST by speekinout
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To: speekinout
We can't replace them all overnight with 10M who have gone through a legal guest worker program.

No one's saying we should have to replace them overnight. But if the program is made available only to people in their home countries, then the illegals will be replaced over time. The problem of those already here is less pressing than the problem on the border. If we get the border taken care of, then we can take our time weeding out the illegals here in the country without feeling like we're having to empty out the basement with a coffee cup in the middle of a monsoon. But we're not going to get the border under control if we keep holding out the possibility of rewards for people who cross it illegally.

70 posted on 02/05/2006 8:05:20 AM PST by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: speekinout

Oh where to begin????

Are you so drunk on Bush punch to believe that these people will ever be forced to leave? Do you think that they will not bring their dependents right away and no one will stop them?



122 posted on 02/12/2006 5:17:55 PM PST by chris1
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