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.
it doesn't take much training to stack boxes at Home Depot or Lowes, or unload a truck. I could go on and on.
this al qaeda thing is a total red herring. AQ needs to send small teams of people into the US. 20, 30. no level of border security is going to be able to stop a dedicated, well funded team of 20 people from getting into the country.
They have sold America for a bowel of Pottage. A Pox on all their houses
Constitution Party here we come !
Heck, the RNC decided it wouldn't even open up debate on the subject of a "guest worker" program (said program already rejected by the House of Representatives as we all know) and adopted a guest worker program as the official party platform on illegal immigration.
They march to their own beat, and the name of their drummer is not "Dee People". In fact, I think they've got Vicente Fox on the bongo's.
Well 80% of Americans DON'T back a guest worker program. Time for me to get back to work faxing my elected officals.
Stop the "racist invasion"!
if we had employer sanctions - real ones - a natural process of returning to their home countries would come as their employment dried up. that would take care of alot of it on its own.
we don't need a guest worker program. we may well need more legal immigration, and that's fine. legal immigration gets you a pool of new americans who assimilate better, make less use of public assistance, are less likely to commit crimes, etc, etc. legal immigration works.
but US businesses don't want legal immigrants. they want a second class tier of workers to come into the country illegally and through a guest worker program, to whom they can pay a lower tier of wages given their status. and that's whose driving this push for a guest worker program.
Narby = Dane
It could not be ANY WORSE for the " middle class", that has seen this Republican controlled government send manufacturing and tech jobs out of the country, import cheaper skilled labor to drive down American wages and to open the border to shut us out of even menial jobs. They have seen to it the rest of what is left of the workers here get to subsidize business with welfare , and medicaid . They laugh every time they think of us, I do not blame them fools deserve to be the butt of jokes.
Even our military is now going to be dependent on enemies of freedom for their hardwear. They have lined their pockets with K street money and told us to go to hell.
It is time for a 3rd party as the democrats are now serving the same masters because there is no Unions/ working class left to support them
I am joining the constitution party.
Perhaps I've not worded it well there, but I'm saying the same thing. People will always take the easiest course, just like water will always flow downhill. That means we must make it easier for them to be legal, than to be illegal.
That can be done by either drastically improving border security (which will do nothing about those people who are here). Or making it very very easy to be legal (it's already easy for them to be illegal, so anything more than signing a piece of paper probably won't be easy enough). Or the best idea, which I think Senator Jon Kyl is proposing, some combination of both.
Why would they recognize and comply with another another law when they ignored the first one?
Because we make the new law easier to comply with than avoiding it.
Comparing people who want to require people from other countries who are in our country illegally to leave until they can enter in a lawful manner, to Nazis putting Jews on a death train does not seem very rational either.
I'm just trying to get the attention of the folks who just yell "throw them out". My point is that it just ain't possible to throw out that many people without huge disruptions on both sides of the border. Just sending 10 million people on a trip back and forth would be headache enough. And back to my original point. If we make it hard for these people to be legal, then we must make it even harder for them to remain illegal. Otherwise, as I pointed out above, they will do the easiest thing, and if that means they stay hidden, and illegal, then they will. It's just common sense.
The bottom line. It must be easier for illegals to comply with the law than not. Almost any combination of making it easier to be legal, and making it harder to be illegal will work. But we must tip the balance of the scale where people seek to be legal on their own, because the time, effort, and money required to force so many people to comply with the existing law just isn't physically possible to do.
if this passes - you will see a massive increase in unionizing service jobs in the US. as soon as the first group of Home Depot workers sees a bus pull up with the newly minted guest workers to take some of their jobs, they will be running to call the AFLCIO as fast as they can.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
The House is getting scared but them Senators are still enjoying life too much to make me happy. They know they have sold us out and they're proud of it!
I changed over and registered Independent for the last Presidential election. There's no way I'm going back. The Constitution Party can count on my vote everytime they get signed up on the ballot.
Which may explain why the AFL CIO is backing open borders. They THINK that will preserve their plush jobs.
The only Union that will save America is a European style union where no one works , the entire nation shuts down.
Employment rate of, what is it, 5% is that horrible? You never heard any of the stories of depression, did you?
Republican controlled government send manufacturing and tech jobs out of the country,
Ford just announced huge layoffs. But at the same time there are some "Japanese" car companies that make a higher percentage of their cars in this country than "American" companies do. So is Ford the "foreign" car company, or is Toyota the foreign car company? Since Toyota now manufactures most of it's products in the USA, I think I'll buy one of those.
Even our military is now going to be dependent on enemies of freedom for their hardwear.
This isn't 1940. Any "real" modern war will happen so fast that if we don't have the armor in stock (and the people on duty to use it), then we just won't have it. So if it's made in England, what's the difference, except pride?
I am joining the constitution party.
Teddy Kennedy thanks you.
And that's the elephant in the room that most of Congress chooses to ignore. Of course, they're being paid good money to do just that.
John Kerry thanks you.
(didn't you learn anything about how Perot got Clinton elected with less than a majority. Twice.)
Bayourod maybe? A very tiny minority but quite loud.
What part of "illegal" do you not understand?
What part of "it ain't possible to deport 10 million people" do you not understand? What are you going to do, build a new Los Angeles from scratch south of the border? Or just let them die in the desert right off?
Gee, what part of the following do you not understand?
1) Close the borders to stop any and all Illegal entry (as much as is possible).
2) End all payments/benefits both State and Federal to anyone who is not here legally.
3) Turn all Illegal Infiltrator kids away from schools. No more edjumikashun funded by US Taxpayers for Illegals.
4) Stiff (as in $1 million dollar fines per incident) penalties on all employers who hire Illegals. Make the Fed Gub'Mint responsible for confirming employment status and ID on all employees.
5) Have ICE stationed at all Hospitals/E.R.'s near Border areas to detain and deport any and all Illegals who attempt to gain medical assistance. *(If treatnment is critical and immediately necessary for Humanitarian reasons, do it, then once they are dischargeable, out they go)
6) End the DELIBERATE misreading of the 14th Ammendment, which would immediately end the "Anchor Baby" scam. Illegals who are here ILLEGALLY are not under US "Law", but are Foreign Nationals who are subject to US Law as any legal or non-legal person would be, but not given the Rights that come with U.S. Citizenship.
7) Tax at a 75% rate any and all wire-transfers to Mexico or any other Nation in Central America, or any of our known Enemies, and confiscation of all property and cash of Illegals caught in the US. Said funds to be used to reimburse taxpayers for all they have had to pay for "Cheap Lettuce"
8) Immediately deport all Illegals who are criminals in American Jails. If their home country will not take them and incarcerate them at THEIR expense, we cut off all aid and economioc ties with said Nation, and simply dump them off over their borders with no support. Tough for them...better for Taxpayers!
See, make it UNECONOMICAL and disadvantageous to ILLEGALLY infiltrate America, and they will leave on their own!
I don't know, maybe the trains that Adolf used to send the Jews to their "worker camps" are still available. They had a full blown effort to "deport" Jews for several years, and all they got was a mere 6 million of them. [/sarc]
By envoking the "Hitler" element, you have automatically lost the argument. But thanks for showing just how Vapid the OBL argument for lawlessness is and how you have the overwhelming desire for capitulation to Illegals becoming so dominant and controlling in our Country, Americans are forced to be Third-Class Citizens behind them...with the Ruling Eeee-lites being the First Class!
Bravo!
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