[TheDon]

Not exactly what was predicted in the press.

It's quite disingenuous to say there are jobs that Americans won't fill. There are jobs that employers don't want to pay Americans to fill.

If enacted, how will this change the illegal immigrant problem? That will be interesting to see.

[JohnGalt]

"A more secure homeland -- to improve the efficiency and management of all people who cross our borders"

9/11 Changed Nothing.

[AAABEST]

PROPAGANDA, LIES and BETRAYAL

[Shermy]

The program would be open to new foreign workers,

Because, ya know, not only are there no Americans to take the jobs, we don't have enough illegals too!

Stripmining of the American people marches on...

[steve8714]

It is incorrect to say Americans won't take these jobs. Americans won't attend on Monday or Friday, or do the job in a competent fashion. I blame the education establishment and baby boom parents, who differentiate between and make value judgements about jobs.
All work carries dignity. All who work deserve respect.
Not all jobs carry enough value to pay enough to subsist in the U.S. at what we would consider an acceptable level.
This does not mean I support this, because I don't. US manufacturers are looking at the day when we don't have jobs to buy the goods they import to our country, so they need the immigrants to work.

[Moose4]

I'm not buying this. My wife used to work as secretary to an immigration lawyer. Supposedly, companies applying for an H-1B had to "make every effort" to fill the job with an American citizen before they went and got the visa candidate.

Guess what? All they did was pick out the visa candidate first, then write the job description to fit that person's skills and experience EXACTLY. Most of the time, the companies NEVER bothered to do any significant searching for an American citizen to fill the position. They decided on the visa candidate they wanted ahead of time.

I have no more faith in this guest worker program than I do in the H-1B and L-1 programs, which are abused to the detriment of both the American worker, and the foreign workers in the programs. Let's get real, if Juan and Juanita snuck across the border and have been working here for four years under the radar, are they really going to apply for a "blue card" when (a) they have to pay for it, and (b) they'll have to leave the country after three years? Suuuuure, they will. And even if they do, suuuuuure, they'll leave.

How do you deport them when we can't deport the ones already here? What do you do if Juanita's had a couple of kids--kids that, due to their birthplace, ARE legal American citizens? Do you send the whole family back to Juarez even though the tots are citizens?

I have no problem with legal immigration. I would love to see a program where thousands of Mexican immigrants could come here legally, work toward becoming citizens, get jobs, pay taxes, and become productive members of AMERICAN society (note the emphasis there). But I'm dead-set against any program that rewards people for sneaking across the damn border.

Set up a guest-worker program, OK, fine. But only do it AFTER massive sweeps to deport illegal immigrants, and AFTER sealing the border. And Vincente Fox can choke on it if he doesn't like it.

}:-)4

[clownboy]

What the heck is he thinking?!

Conservatives HATE this, liberals HATE this.

I'll vote for him again, but now ONLY because the nine dwarves don't appeal to me at all.

Not ONE word about the real problem taking American jobs - the HR1B visas issued by the thousands and offshoring.

[steve8714]

I would however support this program in the construction trades if the prevailing wage provisions are taken off Federally funded construction.

[Huck]

Employers must make every reasonable effort

Can you imagine the lawsuits this could trigger? Claimant is an American who says he was willing to work but...

[gubamyster]

ping

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

...This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior...

Amnistia del serape.

[Joe Boucher]

This president that i have whole heartedly supported as a Republican, has spent monies like a drunk sailor on shore leave. This president has enlarged the federal budget by giving the Dems an incredibly large boost in the education dept. budget. This president has not acted like a frugal fiscal conservative and now he wants to legitimatize illegals throughout this country simply to woo the latin vote?
What about taking care of his conservative base???????
Is there a lick of difference between the dems and repubs. in this country in reality?
What about shrinkiing control of life in this country by govt?
What about states rights? What about the constitution?
I am now very disappointed in the way things in our country are now going.
Socialism and rewarding illegals with my money.
It's B.S.

[eeman]

If enacted, how will this change the illegal immigrant problem? That will be interesting to see.

I agree. I do not see how this changes anything. If previously-undocumented (illegal) immigrants gain some type of documented status, even if it is not amnesty, they will be able to organize at the workplace.

In addition to not having to provide them any type of benefits, I am sure that one of the other advantages of hiring illegal aliens is that you can fire them without cause, or threaten to call the INS. Those advantages would be nullified under this plan.

[antiRepublicrat]

If enacted, how will this change the illegal immigrant problem? That will be interesting to see.

Those jobs that employers won't pay Americans to do will now be unavailable to the newly legal immigrants due to increased cost. Those jobs will then be filled by the next wave of illegal immigrants, leaving the newly legal immigrants just as jobless as the rest of low-wage America, only now they'll be pulling unemployment and welfare.

We did an amnesty before, and it didn't work. I don't see why this one should work either.

[SolutionsOnly]

I've written both my Senators and my Congressman expressing my outrage.

I hope everyone else does the same. Venting about this on Free Republic isn't enough. Write!

[ZULU]

"Today, President Bush proposed a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs."

The Federal Government used to have a program in which an employer could not hire an alien until he had advertised the position and had considered American workers for the position which was open. I know somebody who worked in a government agency which was charged with monitoring this program. He told me that virtually NEVER was any American who was referred to such a position EVER hired - and a lot of them paid VERY WELL. Gnerally, he said, the company was run by nationals of a particular ethnic group who used this program as a way to import friends or relatives into the American Labor market.


"The program would be open to ......to the undocumented men and women currently employed in the U.S."

This program will be open to illegal invaders who have violated our borders and laws and are rewarded for their line-jumping with an American job.

"This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior. "


HUH!!!!??? Do they take us for TOTAL idiots???? This amensty program was used before and it ENCOURAGED further illegal behavior - MORE ILLEGAL INVADERS!!

"President Bush also asked Congress to work with him to achieve significant immigration reform that protects the homeland by controlling the borders;"

He can't do it NOW. Why should we believe things will change at all??

" serves America's economy by matching a willing worker with a willing employer;"

Wrong. It matches one law-breaker - the illegal invader - with another law-breaker - the opportunistic employer.

" promotes compassion for unprotected workers;"

How about compassion for American citizens who are watching our country - a melting pot of many nations, being turned into a nation of one predominant ethnic group - Hispanic? How about all those LEGAL aliens who filled out their forms, paid their fees, waited in line, and are now being callously shunted aside by Bush for PURELY political benefits??

" provides incentives for temporary workers to return to their home countries and families; "

HOW IN THE WORLD WILL IT ACCOMPLISH THAT??? This provides an incentive to bring those relatives BACK here and wait for the NEXT "AMNESTY"!

"protects the rights of legal immigrants"

It VIOLATES the rights of legal immigrants by rewarding those who violate the laws they have been forced to comply with in oder to come here legally. This is NUTS!!!

"This legislation must also meet the Nation's economic needs and live up to the promise and values of America."

The promise of America is equal opportunity under law. This legislation rewards illegal aliens - specifically Mexican Illegal Aliens.

"America is a welcoming nation, and the hard work and strength of our immigrants have made our Nation prosperous."

And those immigratn were, for the ost part, legal immigrants who OBEYED OUR LAWS. Not foreign invaders who violate our borders.

" Current immigration law can also hinder companies from finding willing workers. The visas now available do not allow employers to fill jobs in many key sectors of our economy. "

Then they can lobby to have the laws changed so more LEGAL aliens can come in here - from ALL OVER THE WORLD - NOT JUST MEXICO!!!!

"Workers risk their lives in dangerous and illegal border crossings and are consigned to live their lives in the shadows."

HUH!!!??? These border crossings should be MORE Dangerous do FEWER illegals can violate our borders.


"Protecting the Homeland by Controlling Our Borders: The program should link to efforts to control our border through agreements with countries whose nationals participate in the program. "

Like MEXICO??? SInce when has Fox done ANYTHING to help America??


"When no American worker is available and willing to take a job, the program should provide a labor supply for American employers. It should do so in a way that is clear, streamlined, and efficient so people can find jobs and employers can find workers in a timely manner."

Read above what I said about prior program like this. Nationals from another country will use it as a loophole to bring in more people from their own country. There will be NO job for which an American will be suitable under this program - including high tech and well-paid jobs.

Temporary Worker Program

"President Bush does not support amnesty because individuals who violate America's laws should not be rewarded for illegal behavior and because amnesty perpetuates illegal immigration. The President proposes that the Federal Government offer temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here."

This is beaurocratic DOUBLE-TALK.


This whole prgram is BALONEY. It has the paw-prints of Karlville Rove all over it.

The American public should be up in outrage over this. E-mails, letters, faxes, mass-meetings, should be the order of the day. The Administration is betraying us and America to court the votes of a group of Americans for whom this is not even a major issue - legal Hispanic citizens - and pander to businesses who want cheap labor or an excuse to bring in their families from another Country.

TANCREDI FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!

[Richard Axtell]

Bush's Immigration Reform Proposal: a lot of flowery language, penned by politicians who don't want to appear racist, don't want to be criticized for doing nothing, and don't want to face the down to earth, ugly truth. Between the United States and Mexico, there is a tremendous cultural and economic disparity that drives this one way flood of humanity into the US, and billions of $$$ in the opposite direction. These new laws will be broken, and new rules will be ignored, and they will not change a thing.

This is just more stalling until the "facts on the ground" make any real solution impossible. We have 10 to 13 million illegal aliens in this country now. Reagan's amnesty plan encouraged more illegal immigration, despite its good intentions. Learn from this. There are NO incentives in Bush's proposed reforms for anyone who can get into this country illegally, live here, and work here without government interference, and without paying taxes, to suddenly join the taxed and regulated lower classes of the US workforce, when they can get ALL the benefits without doing so. There is no realistic provision for controlling future illegal immigration in this reform, no effective border control, no punishment for not signing up for this kind of economic legitimization, and no reason not to call it eventual "amnesty". Certainly, nothing in this proposal will discourage more and more illegal immigration. Why should it? It was not designed to.

What it was designed to do is put this issue on the back, back, burner for another few years, at least 3 to 6. The election will go by, with this very serious and rapidly boiling over issue will have a "temporary" lid on it. But it won't fix anything, rather, it will convince Vincente Fox that he can tweak and moan and get his way with our government, and he can look forward to dumping his social and economic problems on us, and reaping the benefit of hundreds of billions of money sent to Mexico from illegals working in the US, for years to come. Fox would benefit greatly if he could "immigrate" another 15 million or more illegals into the United States, and reap the benefits of billions more in "sent back" dinero. His problems too would cool off, and head for that back burner. As long as there are tables to bus, lawns to mow, and tomatoes to pick, this precarious and shaky compromise will endure.

But come the 2010 census, and the factoring in of new methods of estimating the ever growing number of illegal aliens in this country, the illusion of "a problem solved" will go "poof". We will wake up to the news that that 10 to 13 million has become 25 to 30 million and growing at an ever increasing rate, and it will be way too late to do anything to fix it. The pretense of "jobs that Americans won't do", and the "immigrants only want a chance to work hard" will mean little or nothing when California and other border states' budgets and busted beyond repair and result in total default by enormous infrastructure and social costs, ever spiraling upward. The old days of the 90's will seem like a golden age. The specious logic of "they are the economic backbone of our economy" will seem like a bad joke. All because of the inherent capability of our politicians to miss the point and avoid necessary action. It will be too late, simple as that.

The counter to my above criticisms is the "knee jerk", in the form of the question, "So, what do you want to do? Deport millions of people, arrest them off the street, put them in holding camps until we can bus them over the border?" My answer is, no... it is too late for that, thanks to too many weak "leaders" shunting this problem off into the future, combined with too many strident anti-American leftists, who see their victory and power in a radically changed cultural and national demographic reality. What can be done is to put the brakes on immigration, all immigration, until the government can realistically regain control, which it does not have now. Without control of our borders, our claim to national sovereignty would become a fiction, as it is rapidly becoming now. And no, we do not need more illegal immigrants to act as "the backbone of our economy". Let's get our immigration laws in order, and have them obeyed for once. Let's absorb, educate, and merge with the immigrants already here, as they are probably not ultimately going back. But, it is our country and its citizens that should come first, and it is the citizens of America, and only Americans, who should determine what those immigration laws, visa regulations, quotas, and penalties for breaking those laws should be. Never the corrupt government of a country desperate to unload its social and economic problems, regardless of who or where they are.

Perhaps solutions to the vast economic, cultural, and social, disparity between Mexico, the third world, and the America can be changed, bringing those 3rd world countries into the 1st world of the 21st Century, but without question, the solution is not to degrade the US to 3rd world economic status. I would much rather find ways of helping Mexico reform and enrich its economy and people, than simply treat them as we currently do the homeless, which is enabling their misery rather than helping them up. The potential for disaster is at our doorstep, and we cannot afford to make the well worn mistake of "playing pretend" with reforms and programs that cannot achieve what they promise. Face reality, and get control of our borders. Or the voting populous of citizens in this country... will take it back.