BS. We have millions of Americans unemployed. The black unemployment rate is 11.4% and the Hispanic rate is 7.8%. Most of the guest workers and illegals are low skilled workers. This is not what keeps us competitive in the global economy and these workers represent a net drain on our economy.
I have to call BS. Show me your stats and proof on this. Now I am a Republican and I disagree with McCain on his Immigration Reform position. However I do support honest and helpful immigration where American businesses and industry require the help of skilled workers. I must admit for this discussion that I am a former Business Immigration Attorney. There is officially no such thing as a “Guest Worker” category as you define it. The Guest Worker program that would allow unskilled workers to be employed by US businesses for three years before deporting them was never signed into law (Note that I don’t support this either). Now there are “Temporary Worker” categories in the following categories:
H-1B: Skilled Workers (Cap of 65,000)
H-1C: Foreign Nurses (Cap of 500)
H-2A: Temp. Seasonal Agricultural Workers (Cap of 66,000)
H-2B: Temporary Seasonal Non-Ag (Cap of 66,000)
H-3: Training Visa in Approved Program (No Cap)
L-1A: Intra-company Transfer (Exec./Manager) (No Cap)
L-1B: Intra-company Transfer (Special Knowledge) (No Cap)
O-1: Extraordinary Ability (No Cap)
O-2: Spouse of O-1 above (No Cap)
P-1/P-3: Artists, Athletes, Entertainers (Cap of 25,000)
P-2: Art./Ent. in reciprocal exchange program (No Cap)
Q-1: Cultural Exchange (No Cap)
TN: NAFTA Visa (Specific Approved Categories) (No Cap)
E-1/E-2: Treaty Trader/Invester (No Cap)
E-3: Essentially H-1B for Australia only (Cap of 10,500)
There are also foreign national working on Practical Training under F-1 (Student) and J-1 (Exchange) visas but these are not technically “Temporary Work Visas”.
The fact is that the people that come through legally are for the most part highly skilled and educated. This is in fact a brain drain and it is beneficial to the United States. How many of those unemployed you mention are qualified for the skilled positions listed under the above visa categories? Not many I am afraid. And as for the few agricultural/unskilled visas, I’m not so sure that any of those unemployed you mention would want to take on working in the fields either (but there is nothing that forbids them from doing so if they wish to). The vast majority of workers are ILLEGALS, not people coming in on these important and legitimate visa programs. The problem isn’t the people coming in legally, it is the people coming in illegally and the fact that we do not have enough enforcement of the existing I-9 regulations. Your position reminds me more of one I would expect to hear from a Union member who does not understand that the real issue here is enforcing the current regulations and not trying to exclude “legal immigration” in valid and necessary categories.