The Bush Proposal (Interesting article by Linda Chavez on the Immigration Proposal)

Town Hall ^ | Jan 8, 2004 | Linda Chavez

[PhiKapMom]

The Bush proposal

Linda Chavez

January 8, 2004

President Bush announced a sweeping new immigration reform proposal this week that could become a hot-button issue in the November election. For months, insiders have hinted that the president would propose a new guest worker program aimed at allowing more foreign workers into the country on a temporary basis. Widely favored by the American business community, a guest worker program would allow employers to fill jobs in industries that routinely experience shortages of workers willing to do the often difficult, dangerous jobs Americans shun -- at least at wages that allow employers to remain in business.

But the guest worker provisions won't be the most controversial part of the administration's new proposal. Although some groups that want to limit immigration altogether -- such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) -- oppose guest worker plans, even such staunch restrictionists as Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) are on record supporting the idea of guest workers. The real battle will be over what to do with those millions of illegal aliens who are already here.

Some 8-12 million illegal aliens reside in the United States now -- up three- or four-fold from a decade ago. An estimated 60 percent of these are from Mexico alone, and it is no accident that the Bush plan was announced in anticipation of the president's meeting with his Mexican counterpart, President Vicente Fox, next week. The White House announced less than a week before the Fox meeting that millions of illegal aliens from Mexico and elsewhere will be allowed, over time, to earn legal status in the U.S., so long as they have been working continuously, paid taxes and not broken other laws. The plan will impose some penalties on these workers -- most likely fines similar to those proposed in legislation sponsored by Republican Representatives Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe and Senator John McCain, all from Arizona.

These proposals may not offer perfect justice -- who can blame those who resent rewarding "line jumpers" with legal status while millions of other would-be immigrants wait patiently to enter the country legally. But "earned legalization" is probably the best solution to a largely intractable problem. There is no way that the United States can find and deport 8-12 million illegal aliens in this country, and even if we could, we would do more harm than good.

The American economy depends on these workers, who, along with legal immigrants, contributed significantly to the economic boon of the 1990s. If FAIR could wave a magic wand and make these illegal aliens disappear overnight, the rest of us would suffer by having to pay more for everything from the food we put on the table to the houses in which we live. Our office buildings wouldn't get cleaned, our crops wouldn't get picked, our meat wouldn't get processed, nor our tables cleaned when we go out to eat.

Sure, we could double wages to attract American-born workers to some of these jobs, but at even twice the salary it would be difficult to fill the nastiest of these tasks, like processing poultry. But why would we want American workers, who we've spent trillions of dollars educating for 13 or 14 years, on average, to perform jobs that require only the most minimal skills? Even if we got rid of all illegal aliens in the U.S., these jobs would likely go to foreign workers, like it or not.

What sense does it make to insist that we get rid of the very people doing these jobs now in order to make way for other foreign workers to take them under a new guest worker plan? It makes a lot more sense to figure out how to get those illegal aliens already employed at these jobs to come in from the shadows and become part of the legal system. They should pay a penalty for having broken the law in the first place by sneaking into the country or overstaying their visas, but it is better for all of us if they earn their way toward legal status than remain in the illegal netherworld where they now hide.

Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Townhall.com member organization.

[PhiKapMom]

Please read this article by Linda Chavez with an open mind as she makes some very good points.

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[PhiKapMom]

This article by Linda Chavez is very good. Encourage everyone to make their comments in a manner that lends to discourse from a variety of views but leaves out the animosity that is appearing on some threads. It is much easier to read and comprehend a position someone is advocating when that animosity is removed.

Thanks in advance!

PKM

[KantianBurke]

But why would we want American workers, who we've spent trillions of dollars educating for 13 or 14 years, on average, to perform jobs that require only the most minimal skills?

Its not a question of wanting such a job. If more and more white collar jobs are sent abroad or HB1'ed to death, then those who have families to support will take almost any job to make ends meet as well as to pay those staggering taxes the illegals have been and will continue to use. The problem though is that since there will be a flood of low skilled immigrants coming in, wages will drop like a stone and job opportunities will be scarce.

[SolutionsOnly]

The government is contiuing to abdicate it's primary responsibility to secure the borders. Bush's proposal does nothing to address the problem.

The plan in unacceptable. A redux of Reagan's 1986 amnesty (which turned out to be a great big lie). We were promised that problem was supposed to be fixed then, remember?

[junta]

What, that our supposed high tech miracle economy depends on the smoke and mirrors of an endless supply of stoop labor? That Chavez can get a gardner on the cheap while our taxes go up, the deficits spiral out of control to pay for her luxury? What a scam privatized profits, socialized costs and we are supposed to believe this is conservative?

[4CJ]

There is no way that the United States can find and deport 8-12 million illegal aliens in this country, and even if we could, we would do more harm than good.

Sure they could. They are criminals, and the Federal government is to blame. We have many illegals here in Georgia, we might be thrd behind Texas and California. I know several people personally that decided yesterday, after the speech, not to vote for Bush in 2004. Everyone has a line that has been drawn ...

[stylin_geek]

I think most people are approaching this problem from the perspective that the economy is not going to expand and create more jobs. Remember, there was a pretty severe labor shortage in the mid-nineties.

[CheezyD]

Bush is on the right track. There is now way this country will deport 12 million people. Use your freakin' heads.

[SolutionsOnly]

Lou Dobbs emphatically made a very good point last night:

"we are not a market.
we are not an economy.
We are a NATION!"

[Owen]

What % of the 10 million illegal aliens are parents to children who are US citizens? What would be the cost of having the US government assume all responsibilities for the upbringing of those US citizens, born on US soil, were their parents to be deported?

[sarasota]

I saw a piece last evening re: the housing market. It was pointed out that the job paid $8/hr. and if wages had to be raised (to attract "legals"), the house would cost $10,000-$15,000 more.

[Alberta's Child]

I guess it helps if you look at the United States as a "business" instead of as a "nation." Importing millions of illegal aliens might make a lot of business sense, and a country that can't (or won't) secure its own borders should not even be considered a sovereign nation, anyway.

[HarleyD]

The flip side of this argument is how much money does it cost to the economy in terms of health care, education and social services, etc. to care for illegals? We might find that money saved from these areas would more than offset paying people a decent wage.

[futureceo31]

A lot of cops will not do it. Ask any cop if he is willing to get illegals and try to get them to a detention center somewhere or lock them up. And also, how do you find out if someone is illegal??? By their looks. The judicial system would be shut down with cases of racial discrimination.

[KantianBurke]

that's assuming of course that there will be people able to afford it in the first place. Now Mr. Illegal and his 30+ roommates sure. But out of work techies with a wife and kid? Uh uh.

[kevao]

But why would we want American workers, who we've spent trillions of dollars educating for 13 or 14 years, on average, to perform jobs that require only the most minimal skills?

Yeah, better they be on unemployment insurance and welfare.

[Alberta's Child]

Lou Dobbs had it all wrong, though I wish it were otherwise. A nation has a common language, customs, traditions, etc. -- I can assure you that the United States has not had any of these things for a long time.

[futureceo31]

I am not sure what % of these illegals use health care, education and social services. For healthcare, dont you need to have medicaid or medicare to get healthcare. You cannot just walk into a hospital and get health care. Social services need a SSN# if I am not mistaken and someone being an illegal does not have an SSN#. I am not sure how the education concept works but I was also under the impressiona that a majority of these illegalas have most of their family back home...

[futureceo31]

I would venture to say that the US Is a nation of 260 million immigrants, thought most of them came illegally, and probably quite a few had checkered pasts and were fleeing their own countries to come to the land of opportunity. The differnce is, it could have been 200 years ago or 2 years go but we are still mostly all immigrants...