Posted on 11/27/2005 6:17:30 AM PST by Borax Queen
Guest-worker plan to top Monday agenda
Hoping to straddle a fracture in the Republican Party, President Bush is due in Tucson on Monday to promote his border and immigration policies.
The 2:40 p.m. speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the president's only scheduled stop here.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are expected to appear with the president at D-M.
With the backing of businesses who need foreign employees, Bush is pushing a guest-worker program that would let undocumented workers obtain three-year work visas. Workers could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit.
"Our Border Patrol and immigration agents are doing a fine job, but we still have a problem," Bush said in his Oct. 22 radio address.
"If an employer has a job that no American is willing to take, we need to find a way to fill that demand by matching willing employers with willing workers from foreign countries on a temporary and legal basis."
The proposal has alienated many conservative Republicans who feel it gives amnesty to people who have entered the country illegally.
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
Competing guest-worker proposals have been introduced in Congress, which is expected to take up the contentious issue early next year:
- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., support legislation that would allow illegal border crossers to work in the United States for up to six years.
- Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are backing a plan that would force undocumented workers to first return to their home country to apply for a guest worker permit.
- Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., wants to grant legal status to undocumented workers who have paid taxes and lived in the United States for five years if they pass security checks, pay a $2,000 fine and demonstrate English proficiency.
Rank-and-file Republicans may be less divided on the immigration issue than GOP politicians in Washington, D.C.
An October poll of 807 likely Republican voters found 72 percent supported a plan with increased border security, tougher penalties on employers who hire illegal workers and a temporary worker program in which applicants could gain citizenship if they live crime-free, learn English and pay taxes. GOP pollster Ed Goeas conducted the national survey.
Bush signed a spending bill for Homeland Security last month that includes funding for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and a 10 percent increase in the holding capacity of detention facilities for border crossers.
Earlier this month, Chertoff unveiled Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative, which will add 100 deportation officers, 250 criminal investigators and 400 immigration enforcement agents to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The initiative also seeks to eliminate the department's policy of releasing border crossers with a promise to appear in court. Most of these entrants never show up for hearings under the so-called "catch and release" policy.
Tune in to see Bush on TV
-Tucsonans who want to see President Bush during his visit to town Monday will have to turn on their televisions.
Bush's speech at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will not be open to the public.
"He's not leaving the base, so nothing will be affected as far as road closures," said Officer Lisa Peasley, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.
KVOA-TV Channel 4 and KGUN-TV Channel 9 plan to carry Bush's 2:40 p.m. speech live.
Price is determined by supply and demand.
I'll never understand your alls hatred at small businesses that produce good products and services. It's almost akin to the animus liberal democrats have toward business.
I don't hate business. In fact there is nothing better than free unmanipulated markets to properly allocate goods and services. I hate artifical market manipulation.
What market manipulation, it's actually called letting the invisible hand of the market work it's magic.
Ping.
If that price is too high, and the government won't reduce welfare benefits then automate the process.
If labor costs are too high, then employ labor saving capital, aka machines.
agriculture, janitorial services, trophy wives and career gals who want nannies, temporary construction help.
Are there US citizens who want to work as migrants in ag, want to be janitors, nannies or temp day workers ?
Isn't having a govt. mandated ceiling on the supply of labor, a market manipulation, that you abhor.
Artificially increasing the labor market by employing illegals is market manipulation.
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/
Go to the classified section. Then come back and tell me how many framer and cement jobs are in there.
Wonder why they hire the first available person? If I were one of these places I'd do the same thing. When you got homes to build, build em.
The ONLY plan that has possibilities. They MUST return home and than apply from there would make more sense, the other RINO plans or anything that smacks of amnesty should be a big Texas NO!
And the Employers must be listed on their app, a length of stay, and make it a LIMITED stay!
I think "criminal trespass" is the more accurate term. Breaking and entering is where you "break" something to gain entry to a building. Trespass is where you occupy space without permission.
Not if that ceiling is defined as "everybody who is here legally".
Otherwise shouldn't we import about a half billion Chinese to bring down our "artificially high wages" that would correct the "problem" quick.
A nation without borders is not a nation. Maybe that doesn't matter to a lawless libertarian.
No they won't. A lot of citizens refuse jobs because they will lose their medicaid if they do. They do part time work for under the table pay to supplement their govt. assistance. I have a friend collecting unemployment. He is seeking under the table pay or a full time job that pays much more than unemployment, but not any decent job.
What's your point - that you are another illegal alien sympathizer on the thread who would and probably does hire illegal aliens? Whatever. "Then come back" and tell me how it is all right for these companies [sounds like you] to break America's laws.
LOL! Me a "lawless libertarian", you havent read my replies on the libertarian threads have you. First of all I'm not for tearing down the border and have many times stated that I am for the Kyl/Cornyn guest worker plan and I wish not to punish businesses that produce benficial goods and services as you seem wont to do.
There are that many jobs for uneducated, unqualified, gophers out there? Imagine one of them, illegals, who have no experience building your $750,000.00 home...hmm....
Problem is welfare and social security taxes have so distorted the market price that the market does not work very well.
Maybe that's why so many of the expensive homes around here have problems soon after they are built...
Then you had better automate leaf raking, floor scrubbing, baby sitting, oil changing, tire fixing, potato peeling (I can't wait to see the automated potato peeler/slicer/dicer at Kevin's Coffee Shop)... etc., etc., etc.
I wrote a speech for an auto executive recently about the CURRENT shortage of dealer service technicians which stands at 100,000. These are good jobs at good wages that are begging for entry level techicians who can come in and learn the business. The proprietary schools are graduating young men and women in this field but they're not enough, and the manufacturers are providing scholarships and stipends for promising students. There are good jobs out there. What are you going to say when an immigrant (legal or otherwise) steps up to the take one of them?
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