Posted on 12/29/2004 6:21:51 AM PST by Ginifer
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush is moving forward with his plans to create a "Temporary Worker Program" that would allow millions of illegal aliens to remain and work in the U.S. for a minimum of three years with no fear of deportation or other punishment. Advocates of tougher immigration policies believe the president is ignoring the costs and potential dangers posed by illegal immigration.
In his final, scheduled, formal press conference of the year, the president criticized current U.S. immigration policy.
"The system we have today is not a compassionate system. It's not working," Bush said Dec. 20. "And, as a result, the country is less secure than it could be with a rational system."
Any proposed changes to immigration policy must take into account what the president calls "reality.""
\ldblquote There are some jobs in America that Americans won't do and others are willing to do," Bush said. "We ought to have a system that recognizes people are coming here to do jobs that Americans will not do. And there ought to be a legal way for them to do so."
According to a White House fact sheet entitled, "Fair and Secure Immigration Reform," the president's "Temporary Worker Program" would allow new immigrants to the U.S. and those currently here illegally to accept employment "when no American worker is available and willing to take a job.""
Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Cybercast News Service that Bush's proposal is, "a great plan if your objective is to destroy the middle class in the United States.
"If you are going to offer employers the opportunity to bring in unlimited numbers of guest workers then there is never going to be any incentive to increase wages in this country [or] to improve working conditions," Mehlman said. "Upward mobility will become a thing of the past if such a plan is enacted."
Bush says program would not provide 'automatic citizenship'
The program would last three years, but would be renewable. Bush insists he is not proposing amnesty, or an easier road to citizenship, for illegal aliens.
"Now, one of the important aspects of my vision is that this is not automatic citizenship. The American people must understand that," the president stressed. "If somebody who is here working wants to be a citizen, they can get in line like those who have been here legally and have been working to become a citizen in a legal manner."
Mehlman disagreed.
"Even he would have to recognize that a program that allows millions of people, who have broken the law, to gain legal status in this country is an amnesty," Mehlman insisted. "Even though he swears it's not an amnesty program, that's exactly what it is; it is rewarding people who have broken the law.""
Supporters of tougher immigration laws also doubt, according to Mehlman, that there will be anything temporary about the "Temporary Worker Program."
"He's talking about a three-year temporary worker visa, renewable for three more," Mehlman observed. "And at the end of the six years, these people will, of course, all say, 'Thank you very much. We really appreciate the opportunity to work here and now we're going home.' Yeah, right."
The Bush proposal also includes provisions to allow participants to cross back and forth from their country of origin to maintain family ties. President Bush said U.S. Border Patrol agents need to focus on more important duties.
"[W]e want our border patrol agents chasing crooks and thieves and drug runners and terrorists, not good-hearted people who are coming here to work," Bush argued.
'Preposterous' plan fails to address security concerns
Mehlman complained that recommendations by the 9/11 Commission to tighten immigration policy were removed from the legislation passed by Congress due to pressure from those lobbying to protect illegal aliens.
"Special interest politics and greed seem to even trump homeland security," Mehlman concluded, "despite the fact that we've seen what the potential consequences are from not enforcing immigration laws."
Mehlman believes security must be the primary concern in immigration policy and that it is lacking in the proposal to allow for millions of "temporary workers."
"The idea that they are going to do thorough, comprehensive background checks on all these people to make sure that we're not letting in criminals or potential terrorists is preposterous," Mehlman said. "They couldn't even do a decent background check on their own nominee for Homeland Security secretary."
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerrick withdrew his nomination for that post after allegations surfaced that he had ties to companies that have business dealings with the Department of Homeland Security and that he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny and did not pay his portion of her payroll taxes.
The president also argued that his plan would "take the pressure off of employers." Mehlman believes that is a mistake, as well.
"What we have to do is create disincentives against illegal immigration," Mehlman said. "Right now, we're creating incentives. We don't enforce the laws against employers."
Mehlman acknowledged that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents cannot arrest every illegal alien or catch every employer who knowingly hires them. He believes effective immigration law enforcement means applying "leverage" to selected companies.
"You go after some of the employers that have been hiring illegal immigrants with impunity, even though it's against the law. You fine them sufficiently to send a message, the same way that the highway patrol enforces the speed limit on the freeway when they want to," Mehlman said. "They don't stop every single speeder. But, if you're driving along at 80 miles an hour and you see somebody else being pulled over, you slow down."
Such an enforcement strategy would have a ripple effect, according to Mehlman.
"If you go after enough employers to give the rest of them the idea that we're serious about enforcing the law, they will then refrain from hiring illegal immigrants," Mehlman said. "The word gets back, 'Don't come to the United States illegally because nobody's going to take a chance on hiring you.'"
Mehlman believes such a policy would have a similar effect on illegal aliens currently living and working in the U.S.
"Many who are already here [illegally] would leave and go home," Mehlman continued. "The objective is to encourage more people who are here illegally to go home. If you cannot get access to a job, if you can't get access to anything but emergency social benefits, there's no incentive to remain here."
FAIR disputes economic argument for illegal immigration
Mehlman also dismissed the common argument that reducing the available pool of illegal immigrant labor would drive up food prices.
"The labor cost in agriculture is about 10 percent. So, a dollar's worth of produce today would cost you about $1.10 tomorrow if they doubled everybody's wages," Mehlman said.
What little savings consumers reap from lower labor costs are multiplied in other areas, Mehlman argued.
"Maybe you do save a few pennies here and there because there are low-wage illegal immigrant workers doing jobs in this country that Americans would demand a higher wage for," Mehlman explained, "but in return you are providing education for the children of these illegal immigrants, you're providing the health care because these employers are not providing a Blue Cross/Blue Shield (health insurance) program for them. All sorts of social costs are being added on."
But President Bush described his proposal as a more \ldblquote compassionate way to treat people who come to our country." Mehlman wondered about the president's compassion for unemployed and underemployed U.S. citizens.
"What we're wrestling with here is the impact that it has on this country, the impact that it has on people struggling to make a living and make a decent life for themselves and their families, the impact on schools and social services," Mehlman said. "The president didn't tell us who's going to pay to educate all the kids of these 'guest workers' he wants to bring here. Who's going to pay for all the health care needs that they're going to have when they get here?"
That's its strength, actually, and why it can pass and Bush's plan to legalize illegal aliens won't.
I don't know how many times it has to be said, but it is simply logistically impossible to send 10 million Mexicans back across the border. That is not going to happen.
How many would be possible? Five million? Three million?
That's less than the number of illegal aliens the President's plan doesn't address, since not all illegal aliens can verify jobs. What will be the President's subsequent plan for them, since they can't be rounded up and deported either?
One point you're missing is that Tancredo's plan isn't mass deportations.
Another you miss is that it's logistically impossible to give amnesties to some portion of the millions of illegals already here without encouraging the others to stick around for their amnesty, and without encouraging more illegal aliens among foreign nationals who don't get accepted into the guest worker program
You can't reward lawbreaking without encouraging more of it, logistically speaking.
You said that teenagers wouldn't do the tough jobs. My point is that they have and will if given the opportunity.
But, what is your agenda here? It seems you attempt to pick apart others' arguments if their wording isn't quite adequate, meanwhile you appear to ignore the larger points of the failure of our immigration system.
#393 - Very true post. We are financing our own demise (by force).
LOL! It's a laugh that everyone else's financial interests are darkly suspicious, yet the financial motivations of the business interests behind the drive to reward illegal aliens are as pure as the driven snow.
I have to disagree. Nobody said that the illegals currently here need to go back across the border. They simply need to if they wish to apply to become legal guest workers (and if I had my way and the Tancredo plan were amended, to start them on the road to getting bonus points in the queue for a green card). Of course, the illegals will find it increasingly hard to get an illegal job over time, with the crackdown on employers, and the employers having an alternative legal source of labor, and many will "voluntarily" indeed leave using their own two feet.
You let the existing illegals apply from the US, and the message will be illegal entry is richly rewarded, which has been Bush's not so subliminal message since he proposed his flawed guest worker program, which is why per some estimates the rate of illegal entry into the US has near doubled. Actually enacting any proposal that lets illegals apply for guest worker status will cause that flood in my judgment to become a tsunami. After all, who will employers help facilitate getting guest worker status? You guessed it. The illegals they already employ!
This is really all quite simple I think Sink, and there is no other way out of the box in my judgment.
And there you have it.
It just as well be. Requiring illegals to go back over the border for a visa will not work. There are simply too many of them.
That requirement may work going forward, but Tancredo has no realistic starting point.
Well, only if you want to pretend it is. But it isn't.
Everybody knows the motivations of business owners; they're clear about it. The fear-mongers use "us-versus-them" to appeal to the base instincts of a certain segment of the population that responds to paranoia.
We're not talking about Hispanics here, we are talking about Mexicans in the country illegally. They are assimilating to American culture but rather imposing Mexican culture on American soil. Further, Mexicans are not Native Americans they are Spanish with a little bit of Indian. Interesting how the Indians of Mexico and all of south america are treated like second class citizens. The spanish conquerors still rule Mexico through their descendents. They have not middle class, just rich and poor. The truth is the wealthy mexicans send their poor here so they don't have to pay for them. I am pretty fed up with everywhere I go it looks like Mexico. I really don't like seeing street vendors while legitimate businesses have to pay. We have a system and everyone here needs to abide by it or GTF out.
Sure. They're the opposite side of the coin to FAIR, CIS, and American Patrol.
Exactly, and these jobs which would qualify the illegals under the Bush plan are jobs that law abiding applicants never had a chance at. Illegals would be rewarded for illegal entry, illegal employment, and document fraud.
Not only would these illegals enjoy an advantage over non-illegals, they would also enjoy an advantage over many illegals who have broken fewer laws.
That's "compassionate?"
How do you explain that many so-called "fear mongers" favor legit guest worker programs?
Hispandering is quite appropriate, the only people who will benefit are employers, the hispandered to will reap marginal benefits. Whatever happened to a law is a law?
You have a problem with the law then change it but our government headed by Bush just ignores the problem and now wants to circumvent the law, only the upper 4% of Americans benefit from having cheap labor the rest of us then have to provide them medical benefits, educate them and house them in our local prison systems. Besides Mexicans are not the hard working honest group they are cracked up to be
This will be the reality, Torie. No congressman is going to feel the wrath of business owners large and small who will object to a plan that strips them of their workers.
Under your plan, there will have to be a generous grace period in which employers can transition to "legal" guest workers. Otherwise, they'll risk being caught rather than go out of business.
Yep.
BWAHAHAHAHA! I've hit abuse on posters who've made racist comments or called for violence against illegal aliens, and I was called a "neo-National Socialist" on this thread. Police that.
Who? Buchanan opposes any guest worker program. I thought Malkin did as well. At least Tancredo accepts some level of reality.
Good point about a transition period. I accept the amendment. I can see the merit, economically and practically from a politcal standpoint, to allow time for a pool of guest workers to form ready and available and waiting, before the hammer is dropped hard on the employers.
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