This is Perry’s Achilles heel. I found a clip from an Austin TV station from the governors race last year where he was proposing a “guest worker” program, and Democrats liked his stance on the border.
A guest worker program sounds like a better approach than outright amnesty, but I doubt it’s workable. Governor Perry opposes the use of law enforcement to help identify illegals, like AZ SB-1040. So, how does he propose to keep track of his illegal guest workers, AND what’s he going to do when they simply refuse to go home at the end of their 2-year work periods? Additionally, if he’s not willing to get tough, how exactly does he get illegals to come forward, especially when being off the books is a large part of why they’re desirable employees in the first place?
No. I think we have the right idea in the first place. Enforce the laws on the books. Defend the border. Make the USA very inhospitable for anyone here illegally and those who collude to keep the illegals here.
The U.S. had a very successful guest worker program, called the Bracero program, that started in WWII and continued until the Kennedy election, after which he repaid the unions by closing it down.
At the time, most of the workers were agricultural workers.
The criteria for the Bracero program was that all workers were registered; there were supervisory contractor who were accountable for their workers and required to provide medical, housing and so on so they workers would not be a drain on the community where they worked.
You won’t stop free-enterprising illegal aliens with a fence. But you can regularize their entry and know who they are and where they work with a Bracero program.