Posted on 04/06/2007 7:17:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ESCONDIDO -- U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said Thursday that he would support a guest-worker program similar to the Bracero Program that brought thousands of low-skilled laborers from Mexico starting in the 1940s and ending in the 1960s.
The Bracero Program was widely criticized by human rights groups for abuses, but Bilbray said it created economic opportunities for poor Mexicans.
Bilbray said migrant workers should be allowed to come to work in the United States, but should not be able to become permanent residents, nor should their children born in the country be granted U.S. citizenship.
"The old Bracero program, with all its warts, did more to create a middle class in Latin America than anything else," Bilbray said.
In a two-hour discussion with members of the North County Times editorial board that concentrated primarily on immigration reform and the war in Iraq, Bilbray said he has looked into creating such a guest-worker proposal.
"I knew that eventually I would have to push through a true guest-worker program to show that what was being offered wasn't," he said. "It was an amnesty program."
Bilbray was elected to represent the 50th Congressional District, a swath of North County that stretches from Escondido south to Del Mar, on a platform of immigration enforcement.
In June, Bilbray was elected to temporarily fill the 50th District seat vacated by the imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who was sentenced to federal prison for his role in a bribery scam. Bilbray was elected again in November to serve a full two-year term.
Among the more than 50 bills he has authored or signed on to, Bilbray has proposed switching to a two-year federal budget process, requiring employers to conduct employment eligibility verification, denying U.S. citizenship to children born here to illegal immigrant parents and building more fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.
In recent weeks, Congressional leaders have taken up the immigration reform debate that stalled last year.
The White House outlined a proposal that would give some illegal immigrants legal status and create a guest-worker program that would allow foreign workers in. But the plan would not give them an option to stay, nor would they be allowed to bring in their family, according to The Associated Press.
Bilbray said he liked the president's guest-worker proposal, but not his legalization plan. He said the proposal could serve as a starting point for debate in Congress.
"I think it creates a great opportunity, mostly because he's finally separated guest worker from amnesty," Bilbray said. "It was synonymous before ... anytime he was talking about guest worker, he was talking about amnesty."
The president's plan is just one of several being discussed in Washington.
A broad immigration bill introduced last month by Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., would give illegal immigrants six-year visas and create a guest-worker program, while increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, border fences and surveillance equipment.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is also expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate.
Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant rights advocacy group, said the new Democratic leadership in Congress and the president want to pass a broad immigration reform plan. He said Bilbray's guest-worker idea is not likely to get much support.
Sharry said the new Democratic majority in Congress is instead likely to rally around comprehensive immigration bills, similar to the Gutierrez-Flake proposal.
"When you suffer a huge loss, like a death in the family or the leadership in Congress, the first stage is denial, and I would say that Bilbray is in denial," Sharry said.
On recent immigration enforcement efforts in North County, Bilbray said he has encouraged local governments to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to catch illegal immigrants at sobriety checkpoints.
Regarding the Iraq war, Bilbray said he wants Congress to give military commanders and the troops a chance to succeed. Asked what he believed victory in Iraq would look like, he offered Turkey as a model.
"Turkey is a functioning system. That's the best goal that we can hope for down the line," he said.
Bilbray also said leaving a country that is not a "petri dish for terrorism" would be a victory for the United States.
President Bush is expected to veto an Iraq war-funding bill pushed by Democrats that sets a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops.
Bilbray called the measure a high-stakes "game of chicken" that he said would end with Democrats giving in and funding the troops.
We need 100’s of millions of more illegal aliens/ sarcasm
Actually we will get another couple 100 million in the next 20 years if they pass amnesty. Almost one half of this country will be third world, poor and illiterate.
Just how many will be enough before even the liberals get it?
“Bilbray has always been tough on the border issue.”
Unless he is limiting his idea to a bunch of farm workers,
He’s a lost cause.
Tricked us.
He spoke so strong to Bush before.
FYI, Clinton sold the “midnight basketball” and it was a flop.
So you think a new CCC wouldn’t be UNION, huh?
Hey, I got an idea! Why not pass a Free Trade agreement and then Mexico will be just like the USA and then all the illegals will go home in ten years?
He's a Leftist, why did anyone believe him?
Your gonna have to add something about while your on ‘guest worker’ status if you give birth here that kid is not a citizen.
If your city has tens of thousands of illegals and your city is paying millions a dollars a yr for their health care, etc. and put up with their crime, most won’t learn English and takes down the school system.
You watch in person while 50,000 march and rally with Che t-shirts and signs saying Gringo go back to Europe, this is our country, you might think of a better idea.
I’m gonna wait and see what his position is on putting Baking Soda behind the counter and taking plastic bags out of supermarkets before I make a knee-jerk response.
Easy, because it keeps the illegals out. And I’m willing to bet keeping the poor occupied will pay for itself with less social services used by illegals and a reduction in crime.
*FYI* Midnight basketball wasn’t a flop where I live. And the program was proposed by GHWB not Clinton. Clinton just implemented it.
A government job bank offering illegals sweeping floors at minimum wage? You’re gonna have Civil Right orgs crying slavery and unions wanting “social justice.” And the worlds poor would come in droves knowing the United States will pay them.
RE: *FYI* Midnight basketball wasn’t a flop where I live.
Where do yo live?
Sorry I wasn’t clear.
The issue, at least to me, is that the government and companies are taking advantage of the porous border to fill unskilled jobs with illegals. This is a great situation for the government and companies. Illegals have better work ethics and are easily disposable.
They do have a point. The American underclass lacks the sort of self-discipline they need to improve their lot in life. So what I’m arguing is that we need a new system to deal with the unemployable sectors of society and work on using them as a substitute for illegals.
Regarding unemployment, it depends on where you are. I have the privilege of living in a majority minority area. Minority women don’t have much of a problem, they form the backbone of the economy here. However, minority men are completely unemployable(for good reason).
Something has to give, and fast, or the entire US is going to look like Detroit and LA.
not one to give out PI, but let’s just say it’s a minority area.
Post some statistical data or local story. I’ll even agree that providing physical outlets, distracts the participant from engaging in other behaviors. It’s not the role of government to have a compulsory labor force. Anything less than that competes with the market. We don’t need a “New Deal” program.
We don’t? The problem is there is *no* market outside of the illegals. A friend, a construction contractor, told me more or less that he would love to hire Americans. However the Americans that showed up were either completely antisocial or drug addicts.
It’s fascistic and unamerican, I know. But unless we do something with the underclass we have now it’s only going to get worse. Look at LA.
Here’s a link to Midnight Basketball:
http://rptsweb.tamu.edu/Faculty/Witt/wittpub5.htm
Figure 2
Crime Statistics Changes Due to Recreation Program Initiation
(Witt & Crompton, 1996b)
* Cincinnati, Ohio, reported a 31% decrease in crime incidents in the first six months after the Winton Hills prevention programs began.
* Commerce, California, compared gang related assaults in their city with neighboring East Los Angeles to demonstrate program effectiveness. In East Los Angeles there were 140 gang related assaults and 11 homicides in 1993 compared to seven gang related assaults and zero homicides in Commerce.
* Kansas City, Missouri, reported a 25% decrease in the rate of juvenile apprehensions compared to the previous year in the areas abutting centers in which Midnight Basketball programs were offered.
* In Fort Worth, Texas, crime statistics supplied by the Police Department indicated in a one mile radius of the community centers where the midnight basketball was provided, crime dropped 28%. At five other community centers where these programs did not exist, crime rose an average of 39%.
I agree, in an ideal world, that’s how things would work. But most minority neighborhoods don’t have any of those resources. Where I live the drug dealers have become the de facto community leaders. Until you can provide some sort of alternative, I can’t see any other way out of the mess other than a government program. It’s huge and inefficient, but until there’s a viable alternative that’s the only way. Mandatory military service would be another way, but given the current situation that’s untenable.
Blaming public schools is easy. But when you’ve got children that act no different than animals you do the best with what you have. I have a great deal of respect for the school teachers in my area.
As I understand your point, National Service is what will occur and there are plans from both parties. I'm no fan of compulsory service, but I see they way the wind is blowing. IMO we'll have it sooner than later. That will not solve the problem of a lack of work ethic or moral turpitude. Knowing, understanding and living what is right from wrong is the true way.
Hmmm... is the National Service you’re talking about like Americore? Could you give me a link to some of the proposals?
You can’t get something from nothing. Until there’s a critical mass of young minorities with the skills and discipline they need to survive in society they’ll have the only morality they know. The ghetto.
The best link that shows that both parties involved is from http://www.talkleft.com/story/2004/09/22/510/80101
Some more at FR, use keyword search nationalservice
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594306/posts
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