Posted on 12/11/2008 10:58:55 AM PST by BGHater
Farmers would have an easier and cheaper time securing foreign guest workers under pending Bush administration rules.
The controversial changes to the so-called H-2A guest-worker program could cut wages and speed worker recruitment. They also would relax requirements for providing foreign workers with housing and transportation.
"The Department of Labor is going to weaken oversight and enforcement," Bruce Goldstein, the executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund, charged Wednesday.
A Labor Department spokesman said Wednesday night that the final rules would be made public Thursday and published in the Federal Register on Dec. 18, which means they'd take effect two days before Barack Obama is sworn in as president Jan. 20.
Currently, about 75,000 foreign guest workers obtain visas annually under the H-2A program. The program is an agricultural cousin to the H-1B visa program favored by the high-tech industry, designed to aid employers who are unable to find U.S. workers for specialized tasks.
Earlier this year, for instance, the big California lettuce-growing firm Tanimura & Antle brought in H-2A workers. Texas sweet potato farmers, East Coast apple growers and, particularly in the past, Florida sugarcane growers have employed the program. North Carolina leads all other states in the use of H-2A workers.
American farmers, though, consider the 50-year-old program slow and cumbersome, and it provides only a fraction of the U.S. farm work force. California, for example, uses only about 500 H-2A workers annually, while it has about 300,000 migrant farm workers.
"It needs to be reformed," Frank Gasperini, the executive vice president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said of the H-2A program. "It doesn't work as well as it should."
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Of course! One more knife in the back before he goes right?
Too bad he wasn’t as passionate about protecting American workers, American culture, American sovereignty as he is about helping foreigners colonise our communities.
Might as well go out of office in glory for the left!
Where’s the man I voted for?!?!?! I feel duped.
This... http://www.who.int/tdr/svc/diseases/chagas...is one of many results of “easing” restrictions on illegal aliens. Twenty two states have already reported the return of TB and have tied it in directly to illegals. Thanks Senor Jorge Bush! May your daughters or wife never have to deal with the likes of these diseases. If so, there is indeed a very special place in hell for you too!
Jorge is at it again.
Guess it isn’t ENOUGH to be conspiring with Pelosi and Reid about yet ANOTHER rape of the taxpayer wallet.
This phoney traitor can’t leave the White House fast enough to suit me.
I HATE him.
NO MORE BUSHES. and NO “JEB”!!!!!!!!!!!
His name may be BUSH... but the BODY has been SNATCHED.
You shouldn't feel duped. This is compassionate conservatism in action. This Bush is the same guy that ran for office in 2000 and 2004.
I'm convinced that if we weren't in the middle of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004 then he would have lost the 2004 election.
The final Bush legacy for the GOP cause...
Gracias, mi amigo Jorge.
ping
These people have lost their last grasp on sanity. Yes, I mean the Bush White House. Unemployment in my county is 9.4%. And we’re going broke feeding the ‘guest workers’ who are all on welfare! Half of them overstay their visas and never leave, but they’ll all get the Bush/Obama Amnesty.
We are so screwed.
You said it. His priorities haven’t changed.
Exactly right. He's a one term president who got a second term due to circumstances beyond his control, and getting a dufus for an opponent in 2004.
This guy has been a disaster. He is totally out of touch with ordinary Americans. Of this I am sure. He is an elitest N.E. liberal who is throwing more cheap labor to his buddies. I have never been so disappointed in a President as I have been in this one (that includes Nixon).
At least Nixon was an American through and through and always looked out for the interests of the people who elected him. He came from the working class unlike this efete snob that we have in office now.
Good bye George and don’t let the door hit you in the butt. Take your illegals with you.
Hi Auntie. here’s an e-mail I got, it states its facts are from our friends at the L.A. Times
1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County (L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L.A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County)
(All 10 of the above are from the Los Angeles Times)
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare.
Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from illegal immigration. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.
(PS Kaleeforneeah is about broke—surprise, surprise)
Years ago, Congress should ahve IMPEACHED this guy while the Republicans were running the show.
Failure to enforce the laws of the land, as required by his oath of office, constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.
And Bush refused to enforce our border or immigration laws.
It MIGHT have gotten us a Republican President in 2008 and it MIGHT have allowed us to hold on to Congress in 2006.
Concise and tight shot grouping.
Maybe I'm just in a contrarian mood today.
But I'd be a lot happier to see a higher ratio than 1 to 600 falling under some form of official control - and I'd most like to see the 300,000 reduced to nil.
As some other posters note, the disease, drugs, crime, and such that we see every day here in So Cal come from the illegals and not from H-2A workers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.