To be accepted into the President's guest worker plan an illegal alien has to have an illegal job, while a legit guest worker applicant has to find an legit employer. The job held by the illegal alien was never available to the law abiding applicant, therefore legalizing them on the basis of entering illegally and working illegally secures for them the advantages they gained by breaking those laws. Illegal aliens would have a head start in the President's guest worker plan because they jumped the line.
The advantage they gained from jumping that first line would carry on as they moved to the green card and citizenship lines.
The President proposes that the Federal Government offer temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here. The workers under temporary status must pay a one-time fee to register in the program, abide by the rules, and return home after their period of work expires. There would be an opportunity for renewal. In the future, only people outside the U.S. may join the temporary worker program, and there will be an orderly system in place to address the needs of workers and companies. Wow. Now I more fully understand why the Bush proposal really fueled the increase in the illegal flow. The reward for having secured an illegal job in the US when "the future" hits, and one can't get a guest worker card anymore, simply by being employed illegally, is simply HUGE.
