Posted on 01/08/2004 8:03:21 AM PST by 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.
Wrong. All that is necessary is to deny them the ability to work and they will gradually filter out of the country of their own accord-no mass deportations needed
How to do that?Start imprisoning employers who hire illegals .
They''ll get the message real fast
The problem is that the administration is in the pocket of corporate internationalists who wish to exploit cheap labor and don't care one bit about the negative effects of Third Worldization since (they think) they will be safe in their gated communities
She is a neo-con phony conservative and she is wrong.
The administration obviously lined her up to do this propaganda piece.
That speaks to two of the areas of this proposal with which I take greatest issue.
1. Guest workers are allowed to bring over their families. Even if each guest worker only brought over one family member - on average - we would be effectively doubling the immigrant population.
2. As long as families are coming here together, there will be a lot more children born to these people in the US. That means a huge influx in new citizens (most of whose parents will not have had the means to pay for OB services, which the taxpayers will have to absorb). There are already laws on the books, I can't quote them, that allow parents of children born in the states to stay here.
I agree that we must do something about the people who are already here and already entrenched in our economy, but this is just a very bad way to go about it.
Funny how construction was in business and considered a good job for those without much of an education until those jobs were destroyed by illegal immigration. To put it more bluntly, the reasoning that illegals are only doing the jobs americans wont do is a dishonest lie. It is a lie being told by dishonest poeple who want to justify themselves by giving away what doesnt belong to themselves in the first place. Arent you all just charitable people.
I wonder how many times this has to be pointed out before one of you isnt too cowardly to respond to the facts. Who the hell do you think your fooling?
I couldn't agree more with that and why I posted earlier that Fox needs to do something about the corruption and graft and take care of his own people and help with closing the borders.
I think you're only partially correct on this one. As someone else pointed out, major corporations aren't likely to hire illegal aliens -- look at the trouble Wal-Mart has gotten into for using subcontractors who hired illegals.
More than likely, the "corporatist agenda" here is to bring as many immigrants into this country just so they can earn/steal U.S. dollars and become just like any other good old American consumer.
General Motors' ultimate dream is not a Mexican immigrant working on the assembly line -- it's a Mexican immigrant sitting behind the wheel of a Chevy Suburban.
BS! If the govt can enforce the guest worker program then they have just displayed that they could have enforced our immigration laws in the first place. It isnt about deporting 12 million people it is about going after employers who are breaking the law and it wont take alot.
I consider myself part of the base also, and in my whole life I have never gotten everything I have wanted, let alone out of a political candidate. If one votes now, to send a message, he/she maybe, will get their answer forty yrs from now.!!!
So what? He has made his administrations policy on immigration clear-are you saying we should not take him seriously?
This is exactly what Bush 41 did, got overconfident and decided he could take his base for granted on an issue(taxes) that they felt very strongly about.
And it cost Bush 41 his re-election
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