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It is interesting that so many people who dislike the president's immigration proposal like Tom Tancredo... especially since Tancredo actually submitted a "guest worker" bill that is substantially similar to the Bush proposal (although with better enforcement provisions) several months ago... However, Tancredo's bill does not punish the people who are already here illegally or promise to deport them, does not deny them the opportunity to apply for a guest worker visa, nor does it prevent them from getting preference for a green card.

What is wrong with taking the similar features (register guest workers, requires jobs be offered to citizens first), add the better Bush features (fine those here illegally before they can apply for a visa, prevent them from getting preference for a green card, provide incentives for worker to return home after jobs have ended), and add the better Tancredo features (better border control, stronger penalties for employers, sticter enforcement). That sounds like a pretty good bill to me.

And remember that it will be up to Tancredo and his colleagues to get a bill passed and on the president's desk. Congress will deserve the credit (or the blame) for any immigration reform that passes. Tancredo has been in Congress for 6 years now. If he is "the man" who has the ultimate answer for the illegal immigration issue, why hasn't he been able to get it passed through a Congress dominated by member of his own party?

Its like this. Most Dems welcome illegals because they think they can pander to the Hispanic Community here and get their votes later when they become legal - or use them illegally now as voters - Democrats can get a vote out of a dead civil war veteran.

Most Repubs who support illegals do so because they are hoping to cash in on the Hispanic vote AND to please rich business interests who want cheap foreign labor.

Tancredo gets hammered by Dems and Repubs on this issue.

I'm not a big fan of any guest worker program, but at least under Tancredo's bill, unlike Bush's proposal, illegal aliens in the United States get nothing. They are not eligible for amnesty/legalization. Tancredo's proposed guest worker program is only open to persons living outside the USA, who apply at a U.S. Embassy/Consulate. Any long-time illegal in the USA would be ineligible for 3 to 10 years due to existing visa laws.

Tancredo's guest workers can only work in the USA for 1 year out of any two years. They cannot adjust to Permanent Resident Alien status, their US-born children are not citizens, etc.

The rest of H.R.3534 contains, as you mention, a lot of enforcement provisions, including workplace verification, that will do more to reduce illegal numbers than deportation ever could (though Tancredo also calls for doubling detention capacity).

The bottom line is that Tancredo is a restrictionist who calls for far lower overall migration levels and a time out from the massive third-world population transfers we've had the past 25 years or so. Voting for Tancredo is a shorthand way of telling open-border advocates why they've lost your vote.

The reason Tancredo's bills are not sailing through Congress is that there are a lot of Democrats and weak Republicans in office. Even so, I imagine that if Bush and Rove, instead of trolling in Tancredo's district for primary challengers, instead championed his bills - some would become law.