Well, the guest worker program isn't supposed to be the part the makes people leave. It merely provides for legal immigration.
While it's been said by some that it allows an unlimited number of illegal immigrants, I think that rather misleading. It allows immigrants only for existing jobs, and requires that the employer first try and find an American worker.
There are employers who will likely try and not make reasonable attempts to hire Americans. But there are ways to make that more difficult.
However in reality, it's the other parts of the bill that need to provide a means to get those who shouldn't have come here or have overstayed their welcome to leave.
While the guest worker part gets the most attention, it's only part of their proposal. Their bill also provides for a lot more judges, more border patrol agents, more prison space, more work site investigators, more trial attorneys.
It provides $5 billion for investing in technology and checkpoints for border security.
Here's one that could work out well or backfire.
Requires aliens to have a minimum level of health coverage, which can be provided by the participating country, the alien or the employer
It could keep people coming here under the guest worker program from being a burden on our Gantry due to unexpected haelthcare needs. However, it could also be used to ask why if guest workers are guaranteed health care, why aren't American workers as well?
The bill does have provisions to work towards stemming the tide of illegal aliens coming into the country.
It has provisions to make it easier to catch those who are employing illegal aliens.
It gives us space to detain people who are caught so that they can be held until their deportation hearings, expands our ability to handle more hearings, and makes it easier to deport people.
The question remains as to if it is enough to make those who are in our country illegally leave.
More workplace enforcement combined with the choice of legal workers will reduce employers willingness to hire illegal workers. Will it be enough. I don't know.
However, I'm not seeing many realistic plans out there. The problem of upwards of 20 million illegal residents in our country isn't going to be simple to address.
If the 500 new DHS attorneys handle 10 million illegal immigrants. Lets say they can handle on average 5 cases a day, which may not be realistic. It would take them 11 years to go through 10 million cases.
Maybe the majority won't fight deportation. Maybe we can stem the flow of people coming in. Maybe more of those can be handled in groups allowing them to be handled faster.
I have to admit that the Kyl/Cornyn plan looks a bit anemic to handle the problem. Show me a better plan and I'll be happy to take a look. However, it needs to be implementable. It needs to have a chance of making things better. It can't just be a bunch of rhetoric.
I don't know how old you are. Do you remember the Reagan Amnesty in 1986? Those of us who do have heard about these "other parts of the bill" before. They are meaningless. We were supposed to get a one time amnesty coupled with tough border enforcement and tough enforcement of employment laws. But nobody followed through on the enforcement obligations. President Bush has certainly shown himself absolutely unwilling to enforce current law against employers. Why would I believe a word he says about enforcing a future law? He has no credibility. He took an oath and broke it.
The only realistic plan that has a chance of actually working is one that puts enforcement first. The one that just passed in the House is not great but it is better than anything being considered in the Senate. The Hunter Bill in the House was a lot better.
Mo guest worker plan has a chance of working until we prove that we have adequate enforcement capability to enforce our border and our laws in the interior. Without enforcement we will just have illegals coming in and undercutting the guests. And of course the guests will never leave. Our laws will be an even worse mockery then they are now.
All of this is said far better here.