Posted on 01/23/2006 7:32:54 AM PST by devane617
Arizona business and political backers of a guest worker program for immigrants wishing to work in the U.S. are getting some top-level backing.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is teaming with top labor unions, other business interests and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in support of a guest worker program and legal way for undocumented workers already in the U.S. to stay in the country.
Arizona Sen. John McCain and Congressmen Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe, as well as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, are top pushers of a controversial guest worker program.
Joining the U.S. Chamber in favor a proposal put forward by McCain, Flake, Kolbe and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) are the Service Employees International Union, the Laborers International Union, the American, bishops group and the American Health Care Association. The Arizona state chamber also backs that guest worker effort.
Those groups do not support a more get-tough immigration package put forward by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, both Republicans. That measure includes a guest worker program but requires the estimated 11 million illegals already in the U.S. to return to their native countries and reapply for legal status.
Kyl's rival in this year's election, Democratic real estate executive Jim Pederson, supports the McCain-Kennedy bill.
McCain-Kennedy requires illegals in the U.S. to pay a fine and undergo criminal and medical background checks and allows them to reapply for status.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) officially endorsed a guest worker program on Friday. President Bush also backs a temporary worker program.
Some other unions, however, including the AFL-CIO, worry about a large-scale guest worker program displacing U.S. jobs in favor of less expensive immigrant labor.
Other heavyweight business interests backing guest worker include the Travel Industry Association of America, Ford Motor Co., Eastman Kodak, DaimlerChrysler and the California Chamber of Commerce.
Business and unions backers of McCain-Kennedy face skepticism from conservatives who passed a get-tough immigration measure late last year without a guest worker plan. Conservatives such as Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth want border enforcement shored up and tougher penalties against employers who hire illegals put in place before a guest worker package is considered.
West Valley Congressman Trent Franks said Thursday he wants the U.S. Senate to approve the House's enforcement bill and then a guest worker plan can be considered separate from that.
Illegal immigration and border security are top economic and political issues in Arizona and other border states. Key industries rely heavily on migrant and immigrant labor but Franks and others worry terrorists will try or already are trying to enter the U.S. via the Southwestern border with Mexico for a domestic attack.
We have lost this battle to the very officials we elected. There is nothing standing in the way of this program being passed and signed into law. Freepers, we have lost our beautiful America, and the loss came from within.
Someone please tell me again why I should vote for these a$$hats.
Every two years we get an opportunity to correct mistakes. Maybe we should be paying attention to the primary elections this year. Primary turn-out is notoriously light, particularly in a midterm year, and that's an opportunity to vote out those who have forgotten who they work for.
The RNC will have to back the winner of the primary - so why not vote when there may really be a choice.
There is a difference between a weak GOP and a weak candidate.
Why it was abandoned, I don't know, but suspect it stopped being enforced when Caesar Chavez started organizing the farm workers back in the late '60's. You know, all those prune-pickers and apple-knockers and whatnot. Now they can drive around with new trucks instead of driving around an old '48 Chevy.
Discouraged soldier at Valley Forge, is that you?
This dismal state of afairs shows how both bought and paid for the republicans are by robber baron business interests whos only thought is cheap labor equals bigger profits. Let the nation be damned! Do not send them any of your hard earned money, they are not on your side. Now for the demomcraps. Pure evil permeates this spawn of satin.
Before you toss in the towel I suggest you join NumbersUSA.
Just because a bunch of politicians try to claim a coalition does not mean that the program gets voted in.
We have been very successful in the House at getting our way, the Senate battle is just warming up.
What are you talking about? Is your goal a "white only" america or something?
The fact is we have around 10 million mexicans here, and they aren't going anywhere. There's no place to send them to live, and there's not 10 million workers willing to take their place for any price. And if we did attempt such a deportation the US would be portrayed in the same light as Nazi Germany and it's "Final Solution". And although that's a bit of a stretch, we'd certainly deserve some serious criticism for inhumane treatment.
Jon Kyl's idea of extra border security AND guest worker program is the only one that has a chance of working. A carrot and stick process. The bottom line is that we must make it easier to for mexican workers to be legal than not.
But if you had dreams of riding america of mexican workers, then give it up. Illegal or not, they're staying, because there are no good alternatives.
I would do so happily. There are a multiplicity of reasons to churn a party hierarchy, not limited to supplying candidates with national experience to serve in local government who can mentor future candidates. That's the real way to maintain an effective "farm system."
It is important not to give up now. Anybody here, whether you have been intimately involved with this issue up to this point, must act. Join organizations like Numbersusa, send faxes, emails, letters, make phone calls, organize support among family and friends, and have them do the same. Get the message out there, oppose McCain/Kennedy, and keep fighting. We have no other choice.
Remember, this article is from a business journal. They are shills for cheap labor, and open-borders activists like McCain and Kennedy. Don't be discouraged by this.
There is a very big difference between the McCain/Kenedy plan and the Kyl/Cornyn plan.
The McCain/Kenedy plan is something that we must fight. The Kyl/Cornyn plan does not appear to be an amnesty plan and is something I could support in conjunction with a solid plan to make our immigration laws enforcable.
On a side not, maybe we should get some Mexican guest workers to replace McCain and Kennedy and send them to Mexico.
Good point.
I agree! We may lose but I am going to be trying my best to block this first in the Senate and then in the Senate/House Conference and then finally on the House floor. I send every fax that NumbersUSA suggest I send and I make most of the phone calls.
My guess is that we won't get everything we want but we may well be able to avoid something as odious as the McCainneddy Shamnesty. President Bush has said repeatedly that he won't support an amnesty and it is going to be very difficult for him to describe that as anything but an amnesty.
Whatever the outcome, it is time to start punishing Republican politicians. I know of two Wyoming Republican Senators who have earned my implacable anger on this issue and I will be voting against them at every opportunity even if it means voting for RATS. I'm sick of the being represented by Chamber of Commerce sock puppets.
It is possible. If we set up a program that put the illegals already here in the program, requiring them to return home after their time was up, it could work. It is unacceptable to grant amnesty again.
a formalized guest worker program will simply allow businesses that would not normally hire illegals - to now be able to do so legally. Home Depot and Walmart and alot of other low skill service businesses will be loading up these guest workers, and lowering wages. the businesses that hire illegals now, paying cash and paying no taxes - will simply continue to do so.
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