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The Bush Proposal (Interesting article by Linda Chavez on the Immigration Proposal)
Town Hall ^ | Jan 8, 2004 | Linda Chavez

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; bushishillary; bushisliberal; buyingvotes; commonsense; culturewar; illegalaliens; illegalmexicans; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; lindachavez; mexico; nationalsuicide; rewardingcriminals; thirdworldcountry
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To: SolutionsOnly
"A redux of Reagan's 1986 amnesty (which turned out to be a great big lie)."

AGREED!

And as for this great education Americans are supposedly getting, then why are they dropping out of HS or worse, graduating without basic skills? Why do we need to import doctors and nurses from every corner of the globe? Why are we importing workers and exporting jobs, at the same time?

And as for the part of the proposal that the jobs must be offered to Americans first, what is the enforcement proposal for that? Are all the current jobs held by illegals now to be offered to American citizens, via monster.com, or the local help wanted ads?

And what about assimilation? If this proposal even carried with it some end to nonsense such as bi-lingual ed it might be worth considering. As it is, it is nothing but election year BS, it should be tossed out, back to the drawing board, try again.

I love W, but I wish he's stop trying to be vice-president of Mexico, or Texarkana.
141 posted on 01/08/2004 9:45:06 AM PST by jocon307 ( The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
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To: kellynla
Like I said before -- you are breaking the law when you get phoney social security cards and your comment to me that you get me one and get me on welfare the next morning shows you know the people that do such things. Have you called the local law enforcement? If you haven't you should and demand they arrest the people selling these SS cards!

142 posted on 01/08/2004 9:45:15 AM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Support Bush-Cheney '04)
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To: kellynla
No, my "manners" will never improve with you.

Hey, how'd that Stop Schwarzenegger movement of yours work out for you?

143 posted on 01/08/2004 9:45:17 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (© 2003, Ravin' Lunatic since 4/98)
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To: PuNcH
Define "destroyed" by illegal immigration. I completly agree with you that employers are taking big advantage of illegals but now we want government to act as big brother and monitor every construction site, and every hotel chain and every lawn service and see who is illlegal and who is not? The point is to solve a problem that exists currently and would like comments on how to solve the problem. By the way, local newspapers here are full of wanted ads for the hotel industry and other low wage jobs but the unemployment offices are still jampacked. So what does that tell ya?
144 posted on 01/08/2004 9:45:42 AM PST by futureceo31
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To: PhiKapMom
With regard to "line-jumping", all that this program would do is allow these people to legally work in the US - it would not give them preference for green cards (permenent residency). That is the big complaint of the left - it does not provide a fast-track to citizenship for the illegals. If they want to become permanent residents, they would still have to apply for a green card and wait like everyone else. On the other hand, people who have been waiting in Mexico or elswhere could now apply for a blue card and legally come into the US to work while waiting for their green card application to be processed, assuming they had a job already lined up.

There are some additions I would like to see to this plan. I would like to see the law changed to eliminate automatic citizenship for babies born to non-citizens - so called "anchor" babies. Unless the immigrant has already been granted permanent status, any babies born should be citizens of the parent's home country.

Also, I would like to see a provision written into the law that if the worker or any member of his/her family goes on public assistance, the work visa is revoked and the family sent home.

Additionally, if the worker is convicted of a felony, the family is immediately sent home, and the worker is sent home after serving his/her time in jail, and will be denied future work visas.

Sanctions against employers who continue to hire illegals must be toughened and strictly enforced, including heavy fines and jail time for CEOs.

145 posted on 01/08/2004 9:46:19 AM PST by CA Conservative
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To: deport; PhiKapMom
s may become the test program for biometric identification......

Actually, nobody I have read so far has brought up one very good reason for this program: identification.

My daughter is a cop in a Western city with a big illegal immigrant population. When she arrests any of them, she finds 20 different driver's licenses and forms of ID in their pockets - with 20 different names.

Many of the illegals are quite law abiding (except for occasional public drunkennes or domestic violence), but some are gang members and thugs. However, it's very hard to find out who's who, since nobody has any reliable identification. In addition, the Mexican government has not been cooperative, because, quite frankly, our not being able to reliably identify the criminals among our immigrants and kick them out has enabled Mexico to get rid of some of its criminal problem by sending it over the border.

I think that registering illegals and giving the honest working people among them some sort of working papers would enable us to finally collect reliable identification information on them. It would also enable us to sort them out a little better, and perhaps even to put pressure on Mexico to be more responsible.

146 posted on 01/08/2004 9:46:21 AM PST by livius
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To: PhiKapMom
I didn't either until I just looked it up. Guess we should get behind the bill that prevents this before all the newborn mexican become automatic US citizens.
147 posted on 01/08/2004 9:46:40 AM PST by DeathfromBelow
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To: 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.

Well I can assure you that the price of housing has been skyrocketing despite the wonders of illegals replacing citizens as cheap labor.

148 posted on 01/08/2004 9:47:09 AM PST by PuNcH
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Comment #149 Removed by Moderator

To: kellynla
Social Security fraud is a federal issue

Good grief, get a grip...everything you are complaining about is covered under the Tancredo bill...

IN GENERAL- For purposes of carrying out section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Commissioner of Social Security (in this section referred to as the `Commissioner') shall make such improvements to the physical design, technical specifications, and materials of the social security account number card as are necessary to ensure that it is a genuine official document and that it offers the best possible security against counterfeiting, forgery, alteration, and misuse.

More details at the link provided.

150 posted on 01/08/2004 9:47:50 AM PST by ravingnutter
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To: PhiKapMom
Actually this article like so much of the rhetoric spewed by the "Americans won't do these jobs" group is fallacious on its face. For example if agricultural wages were doubled to attract American workers the price of your veggies and other comestibles would increase a mere 25 cents...because the cost of a head of alettuce is only 10% of the total price. Any economy let alone nation cannot sustain itself on low waged labor that drains the funds for health care and educational services. This argument is old and worn and untrue. This nation had survived very nicely without these illegals for two hundred years. This is the dementia of the left that has over taken our society. We can no longer afford this type of delusion. California has over half of all illegals and I can assure you it has NOT been a good thing in any way shape or form ( look at our deficit and our jails). I don't care who writes it nonsense is nonsense
151 posted on 01/08/2004 9:48:03 AM PST by jnarcus
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To: Texas Federalist
Actually I'm wrong That is why it is important to fix the automatic citizenship by supporting the bill that prevents citizenship by birth on this soil. There should be a "legal" link by at least one parent before the child is awarded citizenship.
152 posted on 01/08/2004 9:48:13 AM PST by DeathfromBelow
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To: kellynla
Quit being an extremist in public and I might quit calling you out for it. I can ping whomever the heck I want.
153 posted on 01/08/2004 9:49:00 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (© 2003, Ravin' Lunatic since 4/98)
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To: WackyKat
That is not what caused Pres Bush 41 to lose, but any dialog with you turns out to be a waste of my time. Believe what you want to believe -- sit home, don't vote, but don't whine about who is elected.

Maybe Pres Bush should have just stuck his head in the sand like has been going on for years and made no proposals in order to get reelected easily according to some? For your information, George W. Bush doesn't act that way, or doesn't put a finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing, he proposes what he thinks is best for this Nation. Agree or disagree with him, you have to respect the fact that he doesn't govern by polls or executive orders.

President Bush is a Christian man who believes in giving people less fortunate a helping hand. May not always agree with everything, but I respect him for his beliefs and his willingness to tackle hard problems head on.
154 posted on 01/08/2004 9:49:49 AM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Support Bush-Cheney '04)
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To: jnarcus
How come the legislature is controlled by the DIMs and do not want to touch the immigration issue. It is up to you guys to vote out the DIMs and get some real conservatives in there who can take action against illegals. But seeing as how we live in the real world and this isnt going to happen.
By the way, most everything that we buy is NOT made in our country and this happened in the last 10 years. Also, in the last 200 years, there has probably been as much if not more illegals in this country who probably became legal one way or the other and possibly could be someone you know.
155 posted on 01/08/2004 9:51:45 AM PST by futureceo31
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Comment #156 Removed by Moderator

To: DeathfromBelow
There should be a "legal" link by at least one parent before the child is awarded citizenship.

I had the same argument you did and got proved wrong. I agree with your statement 100%.

157 posted on 01/08/2004 9:52:16 AM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Support Bush-Cheney '04)
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To: PuNcH
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.

You mean jobs like carpentry, roofing, framing houses,dry-walling, concrete work, auto body and mechanic work, etc that Americans have always done and that allowed them to support families?

In areas with high populations of illegals, Americans are largely shut out of those jobs because the illegals will work for sub-minimum wages.

The real purpose of immigration is to knock the bottom out of the wage structure.

You are complicit in turning this country into a Third World nation

158 posted on 01/08/2004 9:52:32 AM PST by WackyKat
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
I call myself a conservative independent. I thought Bush has done a pretty good job in areas such as foreign policy and until now even on the domestic front. This amnesty program has just thrown my vote out the window. Mrs Chavez might make a good point or two but I hate the fact they use our roads and schools yet they do not pay taxes. What if jobs do continue to go overseas then opportunities for us to get these menial jobs will be slim because immigrant workers will be likely to take the job for a lower wage..
159 posted on 01/08/2004 9:55:09 AM PST by Independentamerican (Independent Freshman at the University of MD)
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To: jnarcus
This nation had survived very nicely without these illegals for two hundred years.

America never had illegal aliens until 2004? You can't honestly believe that, can you?

160 posted on 01/08/2004 9:55:14 AM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences.)
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