We already have guest worker programs in the form of H1B, H2B, E-1, E-2, E3 Treaty, Nurse, O-1, P Visa for Athletes and Entertainers, TN Nafta, etc. visas. Hundreds of thousands are already working here under those programs.
You are advocating amnesty for those who violated our laws by entering our country illegally and for identity theft. What signal does that send to potential illegals wanting to enter and to the millions of those who are standing in line abroad waiting in line to enter legally?
The first thing that needs to be done is to shut down the supply of illegals coming in through our borders and from visa overstays. Until we can demonstrate that we are seriously committed to stopping the flow of 500,000 to 1 million illegals entering annually, no action should be taken on those already here. We made the same mistake in 1986.
Lou Dobbs Tonight/Broken Borders aired 3/22/07
These are the LEGAL foreign workers, etc. we allow in now.
There's a lot of distortion here. I think it's important to get these facts out.
Two million people legally admitted to the United States each year. In addition - 14 percent of those, by the way, those people given permanent residency are from Mexico. Two million people legally admitted to the United States. Four hundred thousand skilled foreign workers and their families receive H-1 visas each year.
Nearly 900,000 other legal foreign workers are admitted on some type of employment visa.
Six-hundred sixty thousand student visas are issued every year.
And 455,000 people given temporary employment transfers.
Help me out. What are we trying to do here? I mean, we have a lawful immigration system that brings in 2 million people a year, plus all of these other workers that overwhelms any other immigration system in the world. All of Russia, all of the European Union combined can't even come close to matching our immigration levels. And that's a population 40 percent higher than our own. Help me out.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/22/ldt.01.html