Posted on 01/17/2004 6:54:51 PM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
President Bush's immigration initiative has sparked a great deal of discussion across the country. Perhaps the most interesting debate centers on whether the president, in announcing the initiative, has embraced conservative principles or abandoned them. I believe a temporary worker program is consistent with conservative principles, and here's why.
First, conservatives value national security, and the status quo encourages anything but national security. The presence of 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens within the confines of our borders should prompt the type of reform the president has suggested.
President Bush's proposal will ensure smarter border enforcement by redirecting resources for border security and the war on terrorism away from the dishwashers and landscapers who are trying to cross the border illegally and toward the smugglers and terrorists who are attempting to cross the border for purposes far more nefarious than filling jobs that American workers are not taking.
We can try to tighten up border enforcement even more than we already have (we've already increased spending on border enforcement six-fold over the past 20 years), but as long as the United States offers foreign workers more opportunity for work than their home countries do, people will risk their lives to cross the border.
According to Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, "A real effort to control the border with Mexico would require perhaps 20,000 agents and the development of a system of formidable fences and other barriers along those parts of the border used for illegal crossings."
It should also be noted that some 40 percent of those illegally in the United States first entered the country legally and then overstayed their visas. Even if we did manage to seal the border from illegal crossings, the problem would still be with us. Clearly, we can't solve this problem through border enforcement alone.
A temporary worker program, coupled with serious workplace enforcement, would bring those who are in the shadows out into the open. Temporary workers would be registered. We would finally know who they are, how long they've been here, and when they must return to their home country or change their status.
Again, the "carrot" of a temporary worker program must be coupled with the "stick" of workplace enforcement. With a reasonable legal avenue available, workers should have no excuse for not utilizing it and employers should have no excuse for hiring those who do not.
The latter point is important. Conservatives respect the law. Our current immigration laws, everyone will agree, are so convoluted and out of touch with how people actually organize their lives that it does not foster respect for the law. If we want the law to be enforced, we need to have a law that can realistically be enforced given our labor needs. Which brings me to another point.
Conservatives recognize that America has a need for labor that Americans are unable or unwilling to fill. This is the case today, and will increasingly be the case in years to come as our workforce becomes older and better educated. Now, some will dispute this, noting that "there are some 10 million unemployed in this country, and some 10 million illegal aliens - do the math!"
This math adds up only if you accept that it is the federal government's role, for example, to persuade an unemployed fisherman in Maine to take a job as a landscaper in Phoenix. Or to move an unemployed schoolteacher in Indiana to the lettuce fields in Yuma. The former Soviet Union tried and failed with this type of economic planning for decades. Cuba is still trying. Neither are examples that conservatives should seek to emulate.
Third, conservatives are compassionate, despite what liberals will tell you. The fact that hundreds of illegal aliens, many of whom are women and children, die in the desert each year should compel us to action. Because a temporary worker program would allow workers to enter and exit the country through border checkpoints, the incentive to risk one's life in the desert would be diminished considerably. Under the current situation, those illegally crossing the border in search of work must make the calculation of whether to endure long periods, even years, without seeing their families, or to attempt to bring their families with them. The latter choice often leads to deadly consequences.
Finally, we conservatives are called conservatives because we want to "conserve" practices and principles that have withstood the test of time. There is little about the status quo in immigration policy that is worth conserving. Bush recognizes this. We conservatives, whether we agree with every detail of his plan or not, should applaud him for it.
You say that like they are two distinguishable things.
Dan
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But first you have to enforce it to see if it works when was it enforced ? when was the last time there was a mass deportation of mexicans that were breaking the law ? what the sense of having the law if your going to repeal it AFTER its broken ?
There isnt any
The H1-b program is a huge scam perpetrated against tech workers by our own federal government, and you are right what Bush is proposing is to vastly expand it to include nearly every industry in the country.
If the Republican House goes along with such a scheme they will be thrown out of office when that fact starts hitting home with most Americans.
You say that like they are two distinguishable things.
No they're definitely one in the same... they love spending other people's money.
Regarding the links you posted: it's like Congress is addicted to rewarding lawbreakers when it's making the problem worse. Another reason we have to say no to this new one they want otherwise they'll never stop with it.
No - 67%
Undecided - 11%
Those poll numbers are typical of how people feel about the plan nationwide. There is little support for it.
If Flake is reading FR I hope he came to this thread. He can see for himself there's little support for his so-called conservative "plan".
Either that or sheep who can be led around by the nose.
Get ready, after the SOTU speech they'll be a lot more of them.
Who said it did, and so what?...That would be one of those less than nothing posts, opinions and "POINTS" frankly, I was referring to.
I understand your frustration trying to defend idiocy but that's YOUR's and the Bush administration's problem.
nopardons?...sounds like your full of pardons to me.
At least I can keep my food down when I read these propaganda articles from 'tear down the borders' journos....it's expected.
But I lose my lunch when so-called FR 'conservatives' start jumping up and down and yell cheers and praise for Bush's amnesty plan.
Tomorrow night I'll have to be sure to have a garbage pail next to my computer if I decide to post on FR.
The person, to whom I was replying, was using the FR poll as validation for his/her poswitions.......in FRUSTRATION. It was I, who was laughing heartily at the insipidness of that. LOL
Flake's doing the same thing Senator Larry Craig from Idaho is, helping the ag business. You think they would work to increase mechanization instead of importing a whole new slave labor class for everyone to take care of.
This coming speech I won't be bothering with. TV is meant to be relaxing and entertaining for me, not something that makes me angry. I'm sure there will be plenty of threads here talking about his amnesty plan.
Uh huh. People are catching on to the real way to have employers verify legal workers, or suffer fines and penalties. Just have them verify on line via a Social Security Administration database of REAL SS numbers. INS has to catch up with the internet revolution!
As of now the Social Security Administration does not share information with the INS. This must change. This is hardly genius work to set up an on line database of all 250 million SS numbers
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