Guest Workers, Yes. Amnesty, No!

Human Events ^ | August 18, 2003 | Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.)

[hinterlander]

There are several "Guest Worker" proposals being floated around Washington these days as a solution to our immigration crisis—or more accurately, our illegal immigration boondoggle. The proposals I have seen will do nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration. In fact, they are thinly-disguised proposals for granting legal status to the millions of illegal aliens already inside our country. In other words, they are really amnesty programs.

A bill recently introduced in the Congress would allow illegal aliens already in the U.S. to earn the right to legal residency by working for three years.

This is a very bad idea because it rewards people who have broken the law and only encourages more illegal immigration. Nothing could be more damaging to our nation than this "amnesty on the installment plan."

Illegal immigration is one of the most pressing public policy issues facing the United States. We now have nine to 13 million persons residing illegally in the U.S. These people arrived without background checks and in violation of well established legal processes for entering our country. Entering this nation illegally makes a mockery of the millions of legal immigrants who followed the proper procedures and waited their turn.

As a member of the House International Relations Committee and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, I am frequently given a firsthand look at the numerous failures in our immigration system.

For years, I have called on my colleagues in Congress to address these problems. Yet, even in the wake of previously unimaginable terror attacks, progress has been slow towards properly screening legal immigrants and curtailing the flow of illegal aliens.

Guest Workers v Amnesty

An overwhelming number of Americans continue to call for enforcement of our immigration laws. In fact, a recent Zogby poll found that nearly three-fifths of Americans think we should admit fewer immigrants each year, and two-thirds believe that foreigners residing illegally in the U.S. should not be allowed to stay.

In other words, a large majority of Americans want less immigration and an end to illegal immigration.

Yet despite this clear sentiment across our nation, some lawmakers and a flock of interest groups are now calling for a "guest worker program" that is in reality a disguised amnesty program for illegal aliens already in this country. I think it is a good time to spell out the basic elements of a sensible and honest guest worker program so that we can make some important distinctions and avoid another public policy catastrophe.

Unfortunately, history teaches us that guest worker programs have failed wherever and whenever they have been tried. The indicators of failure are that some migrants settled, illegal migrants accompanied legal migrants and the programs lasted longer and got larger than anticipated. Because of this history, any proposed guestworker program must advance cautiously towards a workable program.

An honest and workable guest worker program must protect America’s national interests and solves the illegal immigration question. A program that only encourages more illegal immigration is not a solution, it is only adding to the problem.

Basic Principles

If a guest worker program is deemed necessary to meet specific, demonstrated, temporary labor shortages in the U.S., it must follow three principles:

• First, it must cause no harm to American workers, both citizens and legal permanent residents. Specifically, guest workers would be allowed to fill only jobs for which there are no Americans or permanent legal residents immediately available, and only for as long as needed.

• Second, it must bring no competitive unfairness to businesses not using the program.

• Finally, it must not diminish America’s homeland security.

  A program that encourages millions of additional people to come to the United States illegally does not meet this basic test. That’s why I oppose any amnesty proposal disguised as a guest worker program.

Essential Safeguards

An honest and workable guest worker program must contain some essential safeguards:

• To lay a foundation, incentives must be included in the program for guest workers to return home, as it is vital to prevent the program from becoming a conduit for illegal stay in the United States. Work must be for periods of not over two years and family members should not accompany the worker.

• Participation in the program would not earn the worker a green card and future legal status will be denied for any participant who overstays the maximum two-year guest worker term.

• Employer sanctions for violating the law must be enforced. Participating employers and their surrogates must be barred from the program and penalized if they hire unauthorized aliens.

• Employers must be required to advise the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement whenever a guest worker has left their employment so that a record will be established of both worker and employer compliance with the program.

• Before a guest worker program can be enacted, however, certain criteria must be met to ensure success:

• We have to be able to fully track guest workers, especially if they violate the terms of their visas.

• We need fully integrated data-sharing among federal agencies of all data on non-citizens.

• We also need a mandatory, nationwide worksite verification system that requires employers to verify with Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security that every employee is authorized to work in the United States. This system must be able to identify guest workers at jobs other than the one for which they are authorized.

Protections for American Workers

American citizens and legal permanent residents should not have to compete for jobs with illegal aliens who will often work for a lower wage and few if any benefits or Workman’s Compensation protections. If it is true that illegal aliens are "taking only jobs that no one else wants," as we hear so often, no one should object to specific safeguards that protect American workers.

A true guest worker program must include the following features:

• No job may be filled with a guest worker unless it has been placed in a national Internet job bank for a specified and reasonable period. The posting period and process needs to be as easy as possible to enable employers to move quickly to hire guest workers if they can’t find an American or legal permanent resident.

  Most employer advocates have stated that they would prefer to hire American workers, but the country has lacked the infrastructure to put employers and workers together quickly. Using the technology of the Internet can give us that universal advertising and matching system.

• Foreign workers desiring to be considered for guest worker jobs will need to apply for the program and place themselves into a qualified pool. Guest workers will fill-temporary employment needs not met by American workers.

• Salaries, wages and benefits offered to guest workers must be the same as offered to American workers. There must be stiff penalties for hiring workers "off the books" or violating health and safety laws.

• Family members of guest workers will remain at home, in the country of origin. This is crucial to prevent American taxpayers from subsidizing the guest worker program by providing services to accompanying family members.

• A portion of the guest worker’s wages, perhaps 10%, will be withheld and placed in trust and paid (with interest) when the Guest Worker returns to his country of origin.

  Any program that offers legal status to people who came here illegally is by definition an amnesty program. Congress should not lie to the American people by calling such a proposal a guest worker program. Our recent history shows clearly that an amnesty program for illegal aliens in the country only encourages another wave of new illegal immigrants. We must at all costs avoid making this mistake again.

Border Security

Any new guest worker program, no matter how carefully written or well administered, will not by itself solve the problem of illegal entry across our open borders. Why should people go through the legal processes for employment if the border remains open and porous? It is only common sense that we must combine a guest worker program with a program to secure our borders.

What will it take to have secure borders? A few key elements of this enhanced border security program are:

• There should be a sense of the Congress resolution that the President should deploy adequate U.S. military troops on the border until sufficient Border Patrol agents can be trained and put into place. This may be a period of three or four years, but we need not have military forces on our borders forever.

• We need to increase the number of Border Patrol agents to 20,000 by FY 2008 along with adequate support personnel and equipment.

• Increase by 2,000 the number of full-time detention and removal officers by FY 2006, and provide adequate funding for detention facilities.

• We need a fully functioning entry-exit system based on biometric identifiers for all non-citizens. This system will flag all immigration violators, including guest workers acting outside the terms of their visas. This is the only way to be sure that guest workers have left when they are supposed to and that we can track them if they attempt to disappear inside our economy.

• Make overstaying a visa by more than 30 days a felony punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and one year in prison.

• Double the civil and criminal penalties for immigration benefits fraud and false claims of citizenship.

• Set a minimum 10-year prison term for convicted felons who return to the U.S. after being deported.

• Suspend the visa waiver program until (1) the automated entry-exit system is fully implemented and functional; (2) all ports of entry have functional biometric machine readers; and (3) all participating countries issue their nationals machine-readable biometric passports (as required under Section 303 of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act).

  Taken as a whole, a sensible guest worker program combined with effective controls at our borders will put an end to the immigration crisis. We cannot expect foreigners to take our borders seriously if we do not begin to do so ourselves.

While this is by no means a complete list of provisions for an honest and workable guest worker program, it demonstrates a sensible starting point. The security of our nation and the quality of life of our citizens depend on a thoughtful, thorough process leading to a workable guest worker program.

[WestPacSailor]

Guest Workers? Good thing that doesn't sound like some Democrat-induced, pinko commie phrase.

[rmlew]

Tancredo Ping

[VU4G10]

The so-called “temporary worker” scheme currently lurking in Congress could be a knockout punch for the American worker and one of the most prolific illegal alien amnesties of all time.

Under the ludicrously misnamed “Border Security and Immigration Improvement Act,” H.R. 2899 and S. 1461 conceal a deadly one-two punch against America:

a massive scheme to import new foreign workers into the United States, and
an amnesty plan giving for illegal aliens already in the United States.

This lunacy is the brainchild of three Arizona Republicans – House members Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake, and Senator John McCain. With the introduction of these bills in the House and Senate last month, this trio deserve all-time lows the

“most horriblest clowns” list maintained by the invaluable immigration reform radio talkshow host Terry Anderson.

The plan adds two new visa categories to the existing laundry list of non-immigrant visas in section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration Act.

The plan will allow an apparently unlimited number of brand-new foreign workers under a new H-4A category, and will grant new H-4B visas - also apparently unlimited – to illegal aliens and to visa over-stayers who are already working in the United States without authorization.

Here’s a handy memory aid for the proposed new visas:

H-4A visa – “The Foreign Worker Importation Act of 2003.”

H-4B visa – “The Illegal Alien and September 11th Hijacker Adjustment Act of 2003.”

The H-4A aliens will be new arrivals who apply for their visas at U.S. consulates abroad in order to take pre-arranged jobs in the United States that Americans supposedly won’t do – or won’t do for what the employers are willing to pay, more accurately.

The H-4A applicants will miraculously apply and be hired for American jobs while they’re still in their home countries, and while Americans are unemployed at home. Amazing, isn’t it?

Successful H-4A applicants will be imported for three years, renewable for another three years. Corporations employing more than 500 workers can get in on the H-4A action for a one-time fee of $1,000. Smaller companies can buy the privilege of importing foreign workers for even fewer pieces of silver – $500. Each lucky H-4A alien will pay an additional application fee, to be determined later.

After getting a foot in the door with non-immigrant status, the next step for these newly-minted non-immigrants will be to file for permanent residence through the very same employer or perhaps through a new-found family member.

And after seven years with a “green card” – voila! – United States citizenship.

Non-immigrant visas are intended for foreign tourists, students, diplomats, journalists, crewmen, nurses, artists, entertainers, language students, cultural exchange visitors, and certain of their spouses and children. The visas allow foreign nationals into the country legally for limited purposes, without resorting to sneaking in through someone’s ranch, or in the trunk of a car.

Whether any non-immigrants ever actually leave the United States is another story. But under this new “temporary worker” plan, non-immigrants who let their status expire (along with those who never had status in the first place) can apply for an H-4B visa and become legal again.

Amazingly, the H-4B visa program is reserved for illegal aliens only. It snubs the law-abiding student and tourist to reward scofflaws who take American jobs without authorization. Being illegal is a requirement for the H-4B visa!

Illegal aliens who claim to have been living and working illegally in the United States prior to August 1, 2003, can apply for a three-year H-4B visa for $1,500. And if they can’t afford the $1,500 fee all at once, Secretary Tom Ridge’s friendly Department of Homeland Security will extend them credit at market rates. [H.R. 2899, pages 27-28 – honest!]

The three-year H-4B visa allows aliens and their willing American employers an extension for as long as it takes to change status over to the H-4A category. And once the former illegal aliens cleansed by their H-4B visa make the jump over to the H-4A status, the clock starts all over again. As newly-minted H-4A aliens they’ll get three more years of employment, renewable for yet another three years, increasing their chances of finding a way to petition for permanent resident status.

But who will get the H-4B visa amnesty?

Remember the September 11th terrorists who came to the United States claiming to be foreign students, but never attended class – or were “tourists” who just disappeared?

If the jihad fanatics managed to find willing H-4B employers, they would have been eligible to change back to legal non-immigrant status under this insane plan. They also could have prolonged their stay even longer by adjusting again from H-4B to H-4A.

But the H-4B “Illegal Alien and September 11th Hijacker Adjustment Act” gets even worse. The H-4B visas throw a gigantic monkey-wrench into the already ludicrous and delay-ridden Immigration Court system of the Executive Office for Immigration Review –EOIR.

Thanks to the three stooges from Arizona, aliens will be able to stop their deportation proceedings, file for a three-year H-4B visa, and walk out of Immigration Court with lawful status all from the very same process that was supposed to be deporting them! [See H.R. 2899, page 30]

And if an alien’s H-4B application gets denied – due to Immigration Act

section 212(a)(2), (3), and (4) inadmissibility – who cares! They’ve just successfully tied up their own deportation for an eternity while waiting for their fellow 8.4 million illegal alien workers to have their H-4B adjustment applications decided too.

Eduardo Aguirre’s crack team at the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) will be ready for all those new H-4B applications, right?

Unfortunately, non-deportation of aliens in the federal immigration bureaucracy is nothing new. The H-4B visa is just one more below-the-radar amnesty program, and yet another get-out-of-jail-free card in the ongoing permanent amnesty that is the Justice Department’s EOIR Immigration Court.

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[rdb3]

Guest Workers, Yes. Amnesty, No!

Guest Workers, NO! Amnesty, No!

[junta]

bttt

[CIBvet]

NO guestworker program for foriegners until ALL our present welfare slugs have been pried off the couch and away from Ophra/J.Springer/Stern and are working at least in one of the entry-level positions many of these Illegals have swamped.

NO Amnesty for anyone who has violated our laws ... period.

[rintense]

100% agree. The illegals situation and the welfare system are two slugs feeding on each other. Kill one, and the other one will not survive.

Reform welfare and put everyone to work- I mean everyone- even in the fields, diggind ditches, etc. Those on welfare can work while they develop a trade so they can stop feeding off the government's teet. Make those on welfare work these jobs and illegals will have no reason to come here.

[Brian Allen]

Close the borders.

Arrest and instantly deport all criminal aliens and every last one of their anchor infants.

Ban for ten years, every one of those on penalty of imprisonment and/or life banishment, from entering any United States property, including any one of our embassies and consular offices.

Make repeat illegal immigration punishable by imprisonment for twenty years to life.

Make English Our Nation's Official Language.

Ban all domestic multi-lingual forms and [Especially "educational"] services.

Institute an emergency ten-year immigration moratorium coupled with a mandatory English Language reassessment of every recently-granted and all future United Sates of America Citizenships.

Take care to protect our:

BORDERS!
LANGUAGE!
CULTURE!
Or Our Beloved FRaternal Republic -- and the Civilization we both Vanguard and forever Guard -- are both doomed.

[rdb3]

Close the borders.

I'll support that, provided that both the northern and southern borders are sealed simultaneously. No compromise.

Arrest and instantly deport all criminal aliens and every last one of their anchor infants.

Please provide a plan that would accomplish this.

Ban for ten years, every one of those on penalty of imprisonment and/or life banishment, from entering any United States property, including any one of our embassies and consular offices.

Agreed.

Make repeat illegal immigration punishable by imprisonment for twenty years to life.

No dice. That's logically inconsistent because, by default, this provides the alien virtual citizenship because said alien would be supported on our dime. Your previous statement would suffice by permanent banishment with penalties including death for repeat offenders.

Make English Our Nation's Official Language.

This would take a Constitutional amendment on the national level, but I would support the individual States doing this.

Ban all domestic multi-lingual forms and [Especially "educational"] services.

X Amendment. See above.

Institute an emergency ten-year immigration moratorium coupled with a mandatory English Language reassessment of every recently-granted and all future United Sates of America Citizenships.

Agreed.

Or Our Beloved FRaternal Republic -- and the Civilization we both Vanguard and forever Guard -- are both doomed.

:-/ Hyerbolic, but I digress.

[Allegra]

There should never be any kind of reward for lawbreaking. These criminals have only one right, in my opinion. A trip back to Mexico.

Statistics have shown that every time amnesty is even discussed, more parasites come slithering across the border in hopes that they'll be in the right place at the right time.

[FITZ]

Tancredo could probably be trusted to come up with a workable guest worker plan --- but with unemployment very high expecially along the border, and welfare caseloads up, and millions of jobs leaving the country because of free trade, there seems to be no need at all in bringing in any number of low-skilled workers. We need Americans working, all immigration should be inversely proportional to welfare rates and unemployment rates.

[Brian Allen]

<< Close the borders.

I'll support that, provided that both the northern and southern borders are sealed simultaneously. No compromise. >>

Why stop at only those two?

Have you had a look lately at how many international ports and international airports our borders comprise -- and at the numbers of aliens who assail and assault them every minute of every day of every week of every year?

[janetgreen]

Tancredo for President. America has had enough of this insanity encouraged by George Bush and his buddies.

[rdb3]

Why stop at only those two?

Good point. Seal them all.

[citizen]

bttt for later

[Brownie74]

I don't support a guest worker program.

• We have too many Americans out of work already.

• The "guest workers" always forget to go home which will lead to larger amnesty numbers.

Both my senators support these guest worker programs but say they oppose amnesty. I don't see it working that way.

[chatham]

I remember in 1969 during a labor shortage in Connecticut Our guy went to the Ct.labor dept. to see if we could hire Canadians to fill our Jobs.
The Labor dept, said we would have to hire pregnant women and children first, end of discission.

[4Freedom]

Bump! Welcome to FR!