Apologies to Charles Schulz
Posted on 01/02/2004 9:35:04 AM PST by kellynla
President Bush in his year-end news conference called for an "immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee." We already know there are plenty employers in this country willing to break the law and hire illegal aliens. And there are 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens already living in this country, so we know there are plenty of willing employees.
I'm sure the White House staff will clean up the language a bit in the coming months. But for all the world, President Bush sounds like his idea of an immigration policy is a national job-fair for those businesses and farms that don't want to pay a living wage and for those foreigners who correctly think U.S. border security is a joke and who are willing to break our laws to live in this country.
Bush's plan, which would permit immigrants to legally cross the border if they have a job waiting, would be the most aggressive immigration reform since the controversial bill signed by President Reagan in 1986 granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. The 1986 amnesty was widely criticized for rewarding illegal behavior and virtually ignoring those who had been waiting for legal entry into the United States.
And now there are those in Congress who want to simply make illegal aliens legal. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) is sponsoring the "Border Security and Immigration Improvement Act," which would make it easier for foreign workers seeking U.S. employment opportunities and simplify the permanent residency application process.
Similar legislation, the "Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2003," is sponsored by Sens. Larry E. Craig (R., Idaho) and Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and would allow undocumented farmworkers and their families to qualify for permanent residency after a specific tenure of work.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) has introduced legislation called "The Dream Act" that would allow states the ability to grant in-state tuition to children of illegal aliens. Meanwhile, out-of-state legal parents of legal residents would get no such break.
Each of these politicians is doing nothing more than pandering to the business and agricultural lobbies, and none of these legislative initiatives addresses the economic and social impact of their passage. Powerful lobbying groups have a lot to gain from illegal immigration, while the burden of the real costs of illegal immigration fall on the rest of us who pay our taxes.
Over the past 10 years, more than 2 million low-skill American workers have been displaced from their jobs. And each 10 percent increase in immigrant workers decreases American wages by 3.5 percent.
Steve Camarota, of the Center for Immigration, says our lawmakers don't understand what unchecked illegal immigration is doing to our workforce: "To them it looks like immigrants are doing jobs nobody wants. But what they really mean is that they are doing jobs that they as middle- and upper-class people don't want."
The average working American knows what our political leadership is ignoring. Illegal immigration carries a steep cost to society. States spend more than $7 billion each year on K-12 education for illegal aliens and hundreds of millions more in treating illegal aliens in our hospitals in border states.
More than three-quarters of Americans say we need stricter controls on immigration in this country. However, a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations survey found that only 14 percent of our political leaders agreed that current immigration levels represent a critical threat. I can think of no issue on which there is greater disconnect between our political leaders and the American middle class than on the issue of illegal immigration.
Congress and the President must create a national immigration policy that is far more than a job fair for illegal aliens and gift of citizenship to those who break our laws. We desperately need a national immigration policy that is effective in securing our borders and is rational both economically and socially.
The only way we can meet those goals is for our politicians to rise above pandering to lobbyists, special interests and voting groups and to talk honestly about the issues that now confront us. Don't hold your breath.
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Bush's plan, which would permit immigrants to legally cross the border if they have a job waiting, would be the most aggressive immigration reform since the controversial bill signed by President Reagan in 1986 granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. The 1986 amnesty was widely criticized for rewarding illegal behavior and virtually ignoring those who had been waiting for legal entry into the United States.
Okay...is he arguing against illegals or legals? Sounds like both to me. Second point...wages for guest workers are determined and regulated by the U.S. Dept. of Labor:
Foreign labor certification programs permit U.S. employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary or permanent basis to fill jobs essential to the U.S. economy. Certification may be obtained in cases where it can be demonstrated that there are insufficient qualified U.S. workers available and willing to perform the work at wages that meet or exceed the prevailing wage paid for that occupation in the area of intended employment.
The plan also states that the employers have to provide proof that they actively pursued American workers for these positions first, which means they must provide classified ads, job agency postings, etc. Also, for agricultural workers, they must provide adequate free housing that meets state standards, 3 meals per day and transportation. Heck, if I had that provided for me, I'd work for less too.
For the scaremongering xenophobes who I am sure will show up on this thread, Bush has clearly stated that there will be NO blanket amnesty, here is what he stated:
"We need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee," Mr. Bush said in a news conference yesterday. "It makes sense that that policy go forward. And we're in the process of working that through now so I can make a recommendation to the Congress," said Mr. Bush ...But the president reiterated a stance he has enunciated often: "This administration is firmly against blanket amnesty."
Also in that article:
The last major legalization program in 1986, when more than 2 million illegal immigrants were granted blanket amnesty, was a failure. The move did not stem illegal immigration, but instead created an avenue for millions of new immigrants to legally enter the country to visit newly legal relatives. Many illegally overstayed their temporary visas. With that lesson in mind, top Republican lawmakers are proposing legislation that would impose a $1,500 fine on illegal immigrants before they were granted legal residency in the United States. Those illegal entrants also would have to line up behind workers who entered the United States under a guest-worker program as they sought legal residency.
When you break a law, do you not pay a fine? Preference in the guest worker program is also given to those who came in legally, sending the illegals to the back of the line. As for the "job fair" remark, the majority already have employers who will be their sponsors. If they don't, then they will have to go through legal channels or be deported. With the threat of fines and being put at the back of the line, it will be a disincentive to illegals. Anything we can do to deter illegal immigration is better than the current situation. We need to get control of the immigrants already inside our borders by giving them a deadline to apply and then start deporting anyone who cannot prove they have applied for such status by that deadline.
Besides, this is not even Bush's plan, even the xenophobe scaremongers have to admit that they haven't got a clue as to what Bush is proposing:
While the details of the plan remain unclear, President Bush is expected to propose an outline modeled after legislation currently pending in the House and Senate, H.R.2899 and S.1461.Details unclear? Expected? Step away from the crystal ball slowly...
Under the proposal I cited above, those laws could be more easily enforced. Illegals will be required to pay a $1500 fine for breaking the immigration law and then be put at the back of the line in the guest worker program as punishment. Anyone who cannot prove that they have applied for guest worker status by a certain deadline can be deported. We need to get control of the illegals already within our borders before we can have any hope of controlling the further entry of illegals.
Lou at least brings illegal immigration up on his daliy cable show. He seems concerned about it but I've yet to hear him say those majic words.
ENFORCE THE PRESENT IMMIGRATION LAWS!
The only reason I found out about the Lou Dobbs show was that people here on the Free Republic were discussing it.
CNN. Sometimes called the Communist News Network, too.
you mean deported, like the 300,000 illegals who have criminal records and deportation orders, yet the federal government can't find them? Sorry, but the government doesn't provide a very convincing argument to them signing up.
As part of his September 2001 visit to the U.S., Mexican president Vicente Fox accompanied President Bush to Toledo, Ohio, where they addressed a carefully selected crowd of 8,000 people. Toledo was chosen because of its large and growing Mexican immigrant population. This changing demographic in America’s heartland was presented as symbolic of the growing interdependence created by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The New York Times described how both Presidents Fox and Bush "praised the contributions of Mexican immigrants and pledged to improve their lives."
snip
The process is an updated version of Karl Marx’s classic Communist formula: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. In this instance, the United States imports Mexico’s surplus poverty, while Mexico — because of its lower wage costs — imports America’s industrial jobs. While this may result in a modest increase in the average Mexican standard of living — from near-serfdom to a higher grade of peonage — it will, if left unchecked, terminate America’s middle class.
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