GOP FORMS STRATEGY TO OK GUEST WORKERS

DenverPost.com ^ | 12/06/2005 03:06 AM | By Anne C. Mulkern

[DogByte6RER]

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.

By Anne C. Mulkern Denver Post Staff Writer DenverPost.com

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.

[DogByte6RER]

I'm a diehard conservative Republican, but the GOP leadership is totally wrong on this one.

Secure the borders first! We need to hermetically seal the borders to preserve our national security and American sovereignty.

Then...and only then, America can consider foreign guest worker programs.

[dangus]

I was wondering why Bush's steadily improving poll numbers just tanked today on Rasmussen. For those not paying attention, El Presidente only will permit national security on the condition that it includes a limitless supply of government-acquired slave laborers. Then, of course, he'll simply refuse to enforce his side of the deal.

The man would rather throw an election to Hillary Clinton than go without his precioussss slave laborers.

[Centurion2000]

GOP FORMS STRATEGY TO OK GUEST WORKERS

GOP FORMS STRATEGY TO LOSE 2006/08 ELECTIONS.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

The man would rather throw an election to Hillary Clinton than go without his precioussss slave laborers.

By giving a wink to an invasion of the United States by Mexico, Bush and the GOP are handing the Wite House to Hillary Clinton on a "made in China" silver platter delivered by a Mexican maid.

[jla]

Congressional Chicanery About H-1B Visas

---

by Phyllis Schlafly, Dec. 7, 2005

---

"Why is it taking you five years to get through college?" I asked a student attending one of my campus lectures. "Because I changed my major from computer science to accounting after I discovered there are almost no jobs available for computer majors."

Of course there are plenty computer jobs, but not for Americans because big business would rather hire foreigners. It's all a matter of money; corporations use their financial clout to get Congress to import foreigners who will work for half the salary Americans used to be paid for computer work.

It's called the H-1B racket, and it's very profitable for the big corporations. This system is not the free market; it's politicians and corporations conniving to do an end run around our immigration laws in order to keep wages artificially low.

The latest piece of chicanery is buried in the 817-page Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 (S.1932) now going through Congress. Without any hearings, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) got the Judiciary Committee to insert language that will raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from the current 65,000 to 95,000, reissue unused immigrant work visas or green cards up to a maximum of 90,000, and exempt the H-1Bers' family members from the cap on employment-based immigration.

This is estimated to increase permanent immigration into the United States by more than 350,000 aliens a year. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) tried to protect American jobs by deleting Specter's amendment, but the Senate rejected Byrd's motion on November 3.

This latest attack on U.S. workers comes on the heels of another back-room deal last fall. Congress exempted from the annual H-1B visa cap 20,000 foreign students who get master's or Ph.D. degrees from U.S. universities.

Then, because of what was claimed to be a mistake, the Homeland Security Department approved 10,000 more visa applications for high-tech and specialty workers than Congress authorized. Nobody was fired over the mistake, and only Sen Charles Grassley (R-IA) lamented, "It discourages me to hear that Congress' limit may have been ignored."

The rationale for inviting H-1B foreigners to take American jobs is an alleged labor shortage, but we never had any shortage in computer technicians, and employers are not required to look for Americans anyway. The labor-shortage claim is ridiculous today since there are more than 100,000 unemployed high-tech American workers, and some estimate the figure at 200,000.

In addition, there are several hundred thousand who are underemployed or working lesser jobs outside of their field. After the dot-com bust a few years ago, tens of thousands of computer workers and engineers left Silicon Valley and took any job they could get, of course at a fraction the pay they had been receiving.

At the same time, at least 463,000 H-1B workers are employed in the United States, and some estimate twice that number. H-1Bers who are hired by universities and other "exempt" institutions are not in the count. During the third quarter of last year, high tech companies in the U.S. laid off workers in record numbers, but they didn't lay off H-1B workers.

The best research on the economics of H-1B workers has been done by Professor Norman Matloff of the University of California/Davis. See www.eagleforum.org/links/

Business executives continue the pretense that American IT workers aren't available. In a speech to the National Governors Association on February 26, Bill Gates taunted us that India and China "have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering" as the United States.

The reason for this is obvious to bright college students who have discovered that Bill Gates prefers to hire foreign computer graduates. Microsoft is adding 4,400 employees this year, but more than half of that employment growth is outside the United States.

Microsoft has opened a research center in Bangalore, India where it expects to hire thousands of computer science graduates of universities in India at a fraction the cost of U.S. university graduates.

Microsoft is also on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China. According to a former vice president, Microsoft promised China in 2003 that it would step up the level of its outsourcing to China from $33 million to $55 million worth a year, and China is complaining that the pace isn't fast enough.

It's bad news for America's future if the corporations learn to rely on foreigners for all their computer work. Americans, not foreigners, are the source of the technical innovations we need to stay ahead in the fast-moving computer industry.

Of the 56 awards given by the Association for Computing Machinery for software and hardware innovation, only one recipient is an immigrant.

We are told that Congress is working on immigration reform and border security. Instead, Congress is selling out American workers to please their corporate contributors.

Eagle Forum • PO Box 618 • Alton, IL 62002 • phone: 618-462-5415 • fax: 618-462-8909 • eagle@eagleforum.org

Read this article online: http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/dec05/05-12-07.html

[NewRomeTacitus]

They (the GOP) are trying everything PR-wise for the constituent audience EXCEPT closing the borders. They work for the highest dollar contributors - those making the most money from employing illegal aliens despite the laws telling them they shouldn't. As those parties have accumulated so much excess profit (by shirking taxes, insurance and fair wages) over their law-abiding competitors they have the ability to wine and dine our legislators and promise them the moon for favors received.

This perverted system of neo-slavery at the expense of American citizens competing for the same jobs should be drug into the light at every chance possible. It is a creeping perpetuation of the corrupt bribery system that has held Mexico in stasis for decades and should be outed whenever seen by responsible journalists (who still have any nads in their shorts).

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

[vrwc0915]

Your name says it all

The fall of rome a lesson for the US? So, the main points for the fall were 1. bad emperors (R or D dosen't matter) 2. increasing civilization of the people of the empire (which means lack of will to use the world's most lethal military) 3. Roman disunity, endless infighting (check) 4. economic decline (no more M3 stats,most don't have savings to cover a months expenses) 5. plagues 6. mass migration 7. and the settlement of the Visigoths in Moesia (illegal's)

[MarcusTulliusCicero]

Guess it's time to start flooding Senators and Representatives with emails informing them that anyone that votes for such a proposal will find a well-financed primary challenger in their next election.

[nj26]

"I was wondering why Bush's steadily improving poll numbers just tanked today on Rasmussen. For those not paying attention, El Presidente only will permit national security on the condition that it includes a limitless supply of government-acquired slave laborers. Then, of course, he'll simply refuse to enforce his side of the deal.

The man would rather throw an election to Hillary Clinton than go without his precioussss slave laborers."

That approval rating will be back at 35% with this guest worker plan.

If the GOP Senate leadership undertakes this plan, they all deserve to be thrown out on their behinds.

[Mike Darancette]

And I believe that there is this draconian policy swindle afoot why?

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

By giving a wink to an invasion of the United States by Mexico, Bush and the GOP are handing the Wite House to Hillary Clinton on a "made in China" silver platter delivered by a Mexican maid.

That's already a "done deal". The guest worker crap (read amnesty) is just a spit in the face to go with it. Hillary will be the next president and whatever half-assed immigration plan goes into effect now will be quickly undone. W and most of congress are stalling because they lack the stones to deal with this issue. It is painful to watch.

[antaresequity]

I am done voting for these fools...

And its more about soldiers than slaves...

The immigrants are an eager bunch that want to serve...but cant...

Recruiters have told me this...

[NewRomeTacitus]

Check on all points...but I regret seeing our history unfold as it has repeating the same old mistakes. I do hold faith that our military are smarter than those then and withhold their strength wisely until the politicos force them to action. Unlike previous eras no one entity ever has all power.
We also gain from a very educated military who comprehend the consequences of their actions better than the transitory politicians who nominally command them.

I find that reassuring.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Dude, we ultimately rule ourselves if we defy evil influences whenever we can and stay true. That you're aware of their B.S. is most of the battle won! Countering and altering is another challenge easily met because they don't expect it. Believe me, most of these villains end up overextending themselves and tripping over their their own weiners due to their misconceptions and underestimations of their opponents.

[etlib]

Some rules for guest workers:

1. You must be here legally to qualify or you must apply for a "guest worker visa" in the country of which you are a citizen.
2. No low wages.  You must be hired at the same wages as an American worker.  This must not be a program to replace American jobs with low paying foreign jobs.
3. No ability to bring in spouses, children or other relatives.  This must not be an invitation to bring in others to sponge off US welfare.
4. If your job is terminated then you return.  This can't be an invitation for you to sponge off US welfare either.
5. Double (or triple) penalties if you are convicted of a misdemeanor or felony.

[BurbankKarl]

I liked the idea that illegals would not be eligible for private jobs....just public ones.

[Once-Ler]

The man would rather throw an election to Hillary Clinton than go without his precioussss slave laborers.

You must think Dubya is an evil and corrupt man. I don't think he is. I think he is doing what he thinks is right. I think he is trying to do the best he can with human limitations. Whether we think he is right or wrong is debatable, but I can't imagine what could be more important to a man than being President of the greatest country on Earth, and establishing that mark upon history.

I think Dubya is pretty well off financially, and he can write his own paycheck when he retires from the Whitehouse on book sales and speaking fees. Do you really believe Dubya would sell out his country and his party to make a wad of cash?

[WasDougsLamb]

----I thought all of us on the threads voted against that. Didn't they listen?

[Ben Ficklin]

"......Secure the borders first....then....consider guest workers."

Ther are two views on this.

First, immigration reform is a thorny issue with no easy, comprehensive solution. The enforcment part of the issue is easy, but if Congress deals with enforcement only, reaching a consensus later on the more difficult parts will be impossible.

The second view is that there is a small group in the House who want to significantly expand enforcement under the phony position that guest workers will be addressed later, but what they are actually attempting to do is get the enforcement in place and will then try to block any futher reforms later.

The Senate gave Sensenbreener/the House a walk in allowing Real ID to go foeward as an amendment to the defense appropriation bill. That won't happen again. If the House tries it again the Senate will add their amendments also and ram it down Sensenbrenners throst.

[conservativecorner]

Hello RNC, NRSC and NRCC! If you pull this, know that conservatives are aware of your little back door maneuver, and you will pay for your treachery at the Polls.