Posted on 03/04/2006 1:04:23 PM PST by Icelander
Homeland Security secretary says security of nation depends on it
March 4, 2006 — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday stressed the importance of a guest worker program for the security of the nation during a visit to Brownsville.
“We are in the midst of a serious discussion about a guest worker program,” Chertoff said Friday at Alice Walker Hope Park, which is on the bank of the Rio Grande with a view of Gateway International Bridge. “Not as amnesty, not a reward, but a constructive mechanism to allow migrants in the U.S. to assume a strong labor demand.”
A mandatory identification card and background check would accompany any such program, Chertoff said, as part of a comprehensive plan to address border violence.
A guest worker program would allow U.S. law enforcement agencies to spend more time focusing on “dangerous” elements “we really worry about,” rather than on the many thousands of people who come to the country seeking work, Chertoff said.
Chertoff was accompanied by Mexican diplomats to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal and Secretary of Public Safety Eduardo Medina Mora joined Chertoff to speak about the plan that aims to reduce border violence.
“Cooperation is what will allow us to resolve these issues,” Abascal said of the new agreement.
Abascal pointed to a 37 percent decrease in migrant deaths and a 27 percent decrease in illegal crossings along the Arizona-Sonora border as a shining example of binational agreements providing tangible results.
Two-thirds of all Mexican migrants cross through this region, said Pedro Espíndola Flores, the national director of the Mexican Border Patrol, Grupo Beta. Agreements between the two countries have reduced border violence and illegal activity along both sides of the border, Espíndola added.
There were fewer migrant deaths despite more crossings this year than in 2000, Espíndola said, and that is a prime example of a successful cooperation between law enforcement on both sides of the border.
Continued cooperation between the two countries will lead to new solutions to problems with border violence, Abascal said, but it would not “produce magic results.” Facing increasing violence by criminal and drug gangs requires a plan of action, Chertoff said. The recently signed memorandum of understanding will serve as the foundation for that plan, adding to the already budding relationship between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies.
In December 2005 the Border Patrol held an academy in Mexico to train officials there on search and rescue techniques. U.S. Customs officials also spent time training their Mexican counterparts with the aim to secure the border for the benefit of both sides, Chertoff said.
Based on simple arithmetics. If there are 200 lettuce heads picked per hour per team member the calculation is simple.
Cheap labor frees mankind from the use of machines. Freemarketeers used this method for thousands of years in Egypt and other nice places. It worked very well.
does your "if" have any basis in fact ?
So long as there is cheap labor there is no need for technological progress.
Letting a Ted Bundy into my house as a guest doesn't keep me safe at all.......
Yes, 200 lettuce heads per hour per team member is a moderate amount. It is based on actual statistics.
No "guest worker" will be a guest. They will all -- ALL -- remain permanently in the US, and then bring in their relatives and their relatives' relatives.
This idea is insane. Chertoff must resign.
Let's now address the other hand picked crops.
You think? No further reply needed for this comment.
Welfare recipients are out via court rulings.
Educate me. What rulings?
Legal aliens are above agriculture
What makes you think that? Allrighty. Your hellbent on a legalizing illegals or, I sorry.. Documenting the undocumented. Glad your in the minority on this one.
Our schools aren't allowed to report illegals. Why is our government so determined to harbor criminals?
I hate to tell you but you just flunked Econ 101. Its like this, when wages rise in one segment, they rise in all segments.
Maybe I can explain it better to someone with your educational level. If you give the lettuce pickers $10 more, you have to give the equipment operator, truck driver, and foreman the same, or better, raise. Then everyone in the office has to have a raise.
But wait, there is more.
To fill these jobs, at 10 more, workers will leave other jobs, Those employers will have to raise their wages 10 to retain their employees.
Everyone gets a $10 raise.
Another factory closed in our state this past week. It moved to MEXICO. Electrolux.
What I don't understand is IF the illegals are doing work that nobody else wants to do (not true since 1,000 got laid off because this closure), why are so many mexican illegals comeing to the USA when our factories are moving to mexico?
It's from the projects in Philly?. Chi-town ?, etc. Seems they wanted housing recipients to voluteer 8hrs/wk? doing menial work
struck down by the court as quasi-slavery
Your hellbent on a legalizing illegals
Not in the least
I'm hellbent of devising a system which will
1. match employers w/ needed alien labor
2. persuade the dependents of illegals to voluntarily go south ASAP.
3. have severe penalties for employer or employee violations
O HORROR! We are so lucky to have Mexico next door. Can you imagine the disaster if American workers were paid more?
What I don't understand is IF the illegals are doing work that nobody else wants to do (not true since 1,000 got laid off because this closure), why are so many mexican illegals comeing to the USA when our factories are moving to mexico?
Then their taking money and giving nothing back in return is robbery.
Considering that benefits are declining and wages aren't rising, and cost of living is rising, I guess we might be able to afford to go to the dentist.
If you constrict the labor supply(get rid of the illegals), wages will rise. If wages rise without a corresponding increase in productivity, it is inflationary.
An increase in the minimum wage is inflationary. Your crackpot theory is 10 times inflationary.
I'll rephrase my question. One of our FACTORIES moves to MEXICO. So, why don't those illegals stay in Mexico where the new Electrolux factory is?
Are you saying that US economy without cheap Third World labor would collapse?
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