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?"
You say that as casually as if it were of no concern. You would trade the economic welfare of the nation just to rid yourself of having to be exposed to people who are different than you.
Typical mentality of the anti-Mexican posters on FR. I hope visitors don't think y'all are representative of the rest of us.
You may not have heard correctly-- there actually are a lot of business leaders very much concerned about increasing our nation's "social capital". Some activism we like (Gates) and some we don't (Soros) but they're people, and as such are active in community affairs
But the issue here is the choice between Bush's immigration proposal and the situation we have now. Critics (like the writer of the article) say the plan "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." They lie. First the wetbacks admit guilt, pay a fine, and get a visa to stay (thus becoming legal aliens) and are kept track of as long as they're in the US which may only be three years..
Jeff Johnson seems to prefer what we have now where the illegals stay and break the law indefinitely with no fine and we don't know who or where they are.
There is a a job in screen printing called "catcher." The person stands at the end of the dryer and literally catches the freshly printed t-shirts and puts them in piles by size. Someone else packs and ships them. The job requires a lot of standing and is pretty dull.
We cannot find "American" teenagers or young people who are willing to do this job for less than $10 per hour. The Hispanic friends of people that already work for us, and who are legal, are willing to do the job for $7 per hour. Our competition, who we know are using undocumented workers, is paying them $4 to $5 per hour for the same work. Some of our workers used to work for him, but as soon as they got their papers, they looked for work elsewhere.
Cost of labor is about 15 to 20% of our product cost. Raise our labor costs by a third and it will have a HUGE impact on our prices to the consumer.
I am all for legal immigration. The situation, as it exists now, gives an edge to employers willing to use illegals. I say allow a "legal" conduit, crack down on employers using illegals, and then you can close the borders and silence your critics on both sides.
Hope you had a nice Christmas!
Cesspool? Is that what you think immigrants are? Doesn't that sound like an extremely racist description of immigrants?
Would you express that sentiment publicly around your coworkers, bosses, customers, or in social settings? Why do you dishonor FR by expressing that filth in front of us?
$20K a year for complete;y unskilled labor?
Hell, my first professional job (i.e., requiring a degree) only paid $25K, and it wasn't that long ago.
Kids on holiday working to earn beer money aren't a reliable labor supply that economic growth can be based on.
I say allow a "legal" conduit, crack down on employers using illegals,.....
If we are not enforcing the existing laws that prohibit hiring illegals now, why should people expect that after the guest worker amnesty program begins, those laws will suddenly be enforced?
Another lie from your keyboard to the Free Republic.
Kids on holiday working to earn beer money aren't a reliable labor supply that economic growth can be based on.
Working to pay for college expenses, saving for a car. Nice try.
MALMO, Sweden - Swedish authorities in the southern city of Malmö have been busy with a sudden influx of Muslim immigrants - 90 percent of whom are unemployed and many who are angry and taking it out on the country that took them in.
"If we park our car it will be damaged — so we have to go very often in two vehicles, one just to protect the other vehicle," said Rolf Landgren, a Malmö police officer.
Fear of violence has changed the way police, firemen and emergency workers do their jobs.
There are some neighborhoods Swedish ambulance drivers will not go to without a police escort. Angry crowds have threatened them, telling them which patient to take and which ones to leave behind.
Because Sweden has some of the most liberal asylum laws in Europe, one quarter of Malmö's 250,000 population is now Muslim, changing the face and the idea of what it means to be Swedish. Asylum seekers may bring spouses, brothers and grandparents with them. Civil servants say the city is swamped.
"You have 1,000 students in a Swedish school. How many are Swedes? Two," said Lars Birgersson, principal of the Rosengrad School.
Thanks for the assist! :~)
If you have chosen not to avail yourself of the greatest period of economic prosperity in history don't blame me or President Bush. Isn't five years of whining enough already?
Sorry, Mr. White House Man, but being smeared as someone in bed with environmental extremists, population control-mongers, and white supremacists will not stop me from opposing Jorge Boosh's guest worker fantasy.
As for the racism angle, if I were in charge, I would deport Europeans, Arabs, Asians, and Africans with as much enthusiasm as I would Mexicans and other Latinos.
"There are some jobs in America that Americans won't do and others are willing to do,"
No there aren't. If you closed the borders, what would happen is that wages would rise for jobs that are needed, or automation would take place. So, that is a complete lie. Bush's Achille's heel. At least one of them.
The reason that these laws are unenforceable is that juries refuse to convict employers for hiring illegal aliens.
Prior to 1965, it was perfectly legal to hire someone from Mexico, as long as you followed some specific rules. Prior to 1965, juries routinely convicted employers who violated the law and hired illegal immigrants. Now, those juries refuse to convict. They don't view hiring someone from Mexico as a criminal act in and of itself.
Change the legal environment to provide a legal path for hiring immigrants, and juries will be far more likely to generate convictions.
You need to get out of the bad habit of ascribing motives you consider execrable to posters merely describing what they consider statements of fact. I said nothing of the sort, and don't believe that, and have never posted that, and have posted to the contrary. Having said that, whether getting rid of low value added jobs in the US is against its economic interests is itself a debatable proposition.
Do you know, perchance, what kind of background checks will be done on these illegal laborers-on-the-cheap? I sure would like to know.
And who is going to do your summer job when you return to school?
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