GOP FORMS STRATEGY TO OK GUEST WORKERS

In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it with a House bill, observers say.

Washington - Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House.

Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let the Senate pass some form of a guest-worker plan.

After that vote, senators and House members will merge the House's border security bill with the Senate's legislation in closed-door meetings.

The House will then vote on the final package, which will include some guest-worker provision, according to a GOP aide familiar with the plan, a Colorado lawmaker and other observers.

The strategy is designed to avoid a divisive debate and contentious vote in the House.

"There is a widespread expectation that that is how it's going to play out," said Tamar Jacoby, immigration expert with The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. "I think it would be hard to pass in the House without the Senate going first."

The legislation that is likely to be the core of the House's immigration bill is expected to be introduced today. Sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., it tightens border security and forces employers to verify workers' citizenship. It does not address guest-worker issues.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the biggest opponent of the president's guest-worker proposal, said the strategy limits his ability to challenge the measure.

"They're doing it this way because they know in the House they'll run into a buzz saw and maybe my name's on it," said Tancredo, who heads the 92-member Immigration Reform Caucus in the House.

Sensenbrenner's bill is expected to be voted on within the next two weeks. That allows House members to visit their districts for the Christmas break and say that they passed immigration reform, Tancredo and Jacoby said.

But the House members will be aware of the plan to build in a guest-worker program through the conference committee, said Grover Norquist, a Republican strategist who often serves as an informal liaison between Congress and the White House.

"The president's made it clear he wants both (border security and a guest-worker program)," Norquist said.

Staff writer Anne C. Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.

Here are a few more:

1. Employer must post a cash bond ($10,000) sufficient to attract a bounty hunter for each guest imported to be forfeited if the guest fails to leave.

2. Employers must provide health coverage for guests.

3. There should be an additional employment tax over and above FICA/Medicare that is shared 25/75 between the Feds and the Host Community to cover social impacts. The employee's share (50%) of FICA/Medicare should be credited towards the retirement fund of the guest in the guest's home country after they leave. The employer's share (50%) of those taxes should go towards propping up our systems.

4. At least 33% of the Guest's wages should be held in an escrow account only to be paid to them after they have left the country. These wages should be forfeit if they fail to leave within 10 days of their visa expiration.

5. This is critical! Any American citizen who is fired and then replaced by a guest within 12 months should be given recourse through the courts. Likewise, any citizen who can prove that a company is hiring illegals should be given the right to sue. Any penalties that would normally be paid to the government for those infractions should be paid to the citizen bringing suit. If the government won't enforce the law, lets put it in the hands of citizens. Let's give all those trial lawyers something useful to do.

LOL! What was really bad was the Visigoths refusing to wipe their feet before coming in to loot and slit throats. Just barge right in and murder the help with nary a "Please" or "Thank You"...and the mess they made of the vomitorium! One couldn't help think they were raised in a barn.

Oh. Never mind.

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