Politicians cross aisle to push farm-worker bill

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | San Diego Union Tribune

[RS]

WASHINGTON – A classic story of immigration politics is unfolding on Capitol Hill, where conservatives are banding with liberals to promote controversial legislation.

A group of conservative legislators, pushed by its labor-hungry farming and landscaping allies, has joined forces with liberals, urged on by their immigrant-advocate friends, to put an estimated 500,000 undocumented farm workers on a path toward legal residency.

[RS]

CONSERVATIVE legislators ?

... this sounds like something Arnold would like to do

[Fraulein]

ping

[Endeavor]

ping

[marron]

My God.

Our immigration policy is destructive on several levels. One of the things that makes Americans who and what they are is their practical, can-do, know-how, that translates into a willingness to act independently and take responsibility easily and naturally.

That comes from the fact that Americans were less class conscious than other people, grew up working from an early age, and tended to do their own manual work. Manual labor never had the negative connotations in the US that it had in other countries. The traditional American has a practical understanding of how the world works that is unusual in the world.

But when all of your hands-on work is done by foreigners, you have cut that part right out of your culture.

There is another issue. The use of foreign labor, which is not eligible for social benefits, creates a two-tier class system in America; those who are eligible for social welfare and those who are not. We have somehow got the idea that there are jobs that people with legal protections will not do, so we have to import people who have no protection. This is widening the difference in wages between blue collar and professionals. Remember that the next time people complain that the gap behind rich and poor is widening. It is a direct result of importing labor.

Only a few years ago trained blue collar workers easily made as much money as degreed people. But blue collar wages have been flat for years now, even trending steadily downward. Not to worry, the IT industry which was only a couple of years ago the ticket to young wealth in the US, has suddenly been gutted as companies import engineers at the same time they export work.

I have yet to hear any politician aside from Tancredo address this. Bring up immigration to any politician left or right, and they will dive through any open window and sprint for the parking lot.

This is not a race issue, but you wouldn't know it to see it covered in the press. The damage done affects all workers of all races in this country, perhaps hurting lower income Blacks and Hispanic workers even more than anyone, since their jobs are more vulnerable than most. But the damage done as sources of work dry up, and wages are steadily depressed, goes across the board.

There is a kind of cultural pessimism that sets in when people believe that, whatever they do, they can not get ahead. And when wages are headed steadily downward, pessimism is what you get.

Pessimistic voters vote for utopians. In plain english, that means they vote for leftists and fascists, who promise them what they want to hear. Everything, that is, except control over the borders.

[RS]

"Only a few years ago trained blue collar workers easily made as much money as degreed people."


Hate to bring it up, but the article is about "labor-hungry farming and landscaping ".


How long ago was it that farm workers easily made the same as mechanical engineers ?

[TheBattman]

This is what you get when you combine lazy Americans and low farm prices....

At least around here in the heart of US Rice country, farm help is getting harder to find. When Americans are hired, only a small percentage actually stick with it and can be relied upon.

On the other hand, many around here are now hiring imigrants. I don't know how many are legal and how many are not, but.....

These workers tend to be far more reliable. In some cases, it is more expensive to hire the imigrants than it is to hire a local American worker. The difference is, the imigrant tends to be more reliable.

Does this make the practice of hiring imigrants the right thing to do....what a hard question.

What I do know is that grain prices are still in the basement, yet grain products have not gotten any cheaper. Farmers are running with fewer hands (more efficiently) and yet are operating at smaller and smaller margins. The majority of farmers I know go from year-to-year not knowing if they will still be in business the following season.

Would I do the work that farm workers do around here? Only if it were my very last resort. I would prefer such hard labor over being on the public penny. Unfortunatley, too many do not feel the same way.

So what is the solution?

[marron]

My older relatives worked the fields that are presently worked by illegals, back in the fifties. They traveled state to state, with the kids. Some of them eventually settled in the area permanently, and over time worked their way up the ladder.

One of my cousins works in landscaping right now. He actually makes pretty good money, but don't ask me how much of it he declares on his taxes... its a cash business, you know...

But where I live, farm work is 100% foreign and of that, heavily illegal. But it wasn't always like that, and I see no reason it has to be even now.

But unfortunately we are not only talking about farm labor.

Where I live, a high percentage of blue collar labor is done by foreign nationals. Whether they are legal or not I would not know, but that they are foreign nationals is not hard to ascertain. I lived in Mexico, my spanish is fluent, so the differences are easy to distinguish, but if you aren't sure, just ask. Its not a secret.

I was on a recent power plant project, where of about 50 electricians, all of them were foreign nationals. Not Mexican Americans, but Mexican natonals. Again, I have to assume that they were legal, but there have been serious changes in immigration policy and they were never debated publicly.

In the last decade or so, the motel industry has been swamped by foreign workers. It is startling to note that in even the smallest town miles off the main route, the proprietors are from India. I love folks from India, and I love people who are willing to take a chance on their own business, but that isn't the point. There has been a tremendous influx of South Asians over the last decade or so.

I read an article recently about Indian billionaires, and it mentioned one who made his fortune buying up US motels. So I assume that this is the explanation behind the motel demographic shift I have observed.

Maybe something similar has happened in the convenience store industry, where all of them are now run either by arabs or south asians.

The excuse given is that Americans won't take those jobs. But until recently, they did.

[VU4G10]

Another amnesty ping.

[JustPiper]

Bump Fraulein and thanx very for this ping!

Three more for the SELLOUT list:
Republican Chris Cannon and California Democrat Howard Berman, and Kennedy of course.

But two more for our list of good contacts:
A move to circumvent Sensenbrenner would require the approval of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, who is generally known for his deference to committee chairmen and his desire to maintain unity among House Republicans.



"It's an impressive coalition," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Kennedy and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, are the bill's principal architects. Another odd couple is pushing the bill in the House of Representatives: Utah Republican Chris Cannon and California Democrat Howard Berman.

The right-left alliance, which has become a force in immigration issues, is promoting the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act. The bill also would slash much of the red tape that bedevils employers who want to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis.

The legislation has drawn support from business interests far beyond the farms and fields whose work forces it would affect.

John Gay of the American Hotel and Lodging Association said the bill, and the coalition formed to back it, "can serve as models for much-needed, broader immigration reform" aimed at legalizing many more of the estimated 7 million to 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Though the bill quickly gathered 19 sponsors in the Senate, its passage there is far from assured. In any case, it is certain to face stiff opposition in the House, where critics ridicule the claim that the bill offers "earned adjustment" rather than amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"They're using a euphemism because they know amnesty is so controversial," said Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who has become the most outspoken congressional opponent of programs to aid illegal immigrants. "I will be doing everything I possibly can to defeat it."

The bill's most formidable obstacle is likely to be the main gatekeeper on immigration legislation, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. He is known for his stern opposition to any whiff of amnesty.

Under normal House procedures, Sensenbrenner could kill the bill by refusing to grant it a hearing, thereby keeping it from coming to a vote on the House floor. So advocates of the bill are considering attaching the measure to an appropriations bill in the Senate.

If the Senate approved the measure, it could then go to a conference committee that would bring together members of the two houses. They would iron out a proposal that would go back to both full houses for a final vote.

"That's what I'm most worried about," Tancredo said.

House Judiciary Committee spokesman Jeff Lungren said Sensenbrenner "would vigorously oppose an effort to essentially sneak a controversial amnesty package into a broader bill."

A move to circumvent Sensenbrenner would require the approval of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, who is generally known for his deference to committee chairmen and his desire to maintain unity among House Republicans.

"There are instances when Speaker Hastert asserts himself, but he generally wouldn't want to do anything that would be seen as a slap in the face of the Judiciary Committee chair," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Hastert spokesman John Feehery said an attempt to circumvent Sensenbrenner "is probably not going to happen," given Hastert's preference to follow customary legislative routes. But Hastert, who has been heavily lobbied by Illinois landscapers, came out in favor of the bill this week, raising the hopes of industry lobbyist Craig Regelbrugge.

"He clearly will be very important" in deliberations on the bill, said Regelbrugge, who added that landscapers and farmers across the country need the bill to stabilize their work forces.

The White House remains a wild card.

President Bush has said he would like to see a "guest worker" program, but he has approached the issue cautiously. White House efforts to reach an immigration deal with Mexico broke down over the specifics, especially over the issue of legalization – or amnesty – for undocumented workers.

A Democratic congressional staffer said of the White House team: "They support (the new bill) and they would sign it, but the $64,000 question is: Will they do any heavy lifting or invest any political capital? They'd really like this to happen by immaculate conception."

Jerry Kammer: (202) 737-7681; jerry.kammer@copleydc.com

[JustPiper]

Ping! Hold the phone friends, the dems are trying to sneak this one in Ping!!!

[Joe Hadenuf]

They wont stop until they turn America into Meximerica.....

[JustPiper]

Over my dead body because Joe, that's what it will take!

[FITZ]

labor-hungry farming and landscaping allies

They meant "cheap-labor-hungry" which of course isn't all that cheap but must be subsidized by the taxpayers. Of course they want near-slaves that they don't have to provide benefits like health insurance, workers' comp, or minimum wage. The slave owners felt the same way except they paid the living costs of their cheap slaves and didn't expect the taxpayers to do that.

[FITZ]

Blacks and Hispanic workers even more than anyone, since their jobs are more vulnerable than most. But the damage done as sources of work dry up, and wages are steadily depressed, goes across the board.

That's very true -- I live where there is high immigration levels --- and even illegals will tell you there are too many of them --- it's making it very difficult for illegals who are trying to get ahead that so many newcomers are coming over willing to work for dirt and the jobs are few but spread over more and more people. Someone fresh from Mexico thinks anything over 50c an hour looks great --- but those who have been here and see the costs of living here realize they need more if they ever wish to me more than some day-laborer peon.

[RS]

"They meant "cheap-labor-hungry" which of course isn't all that cheap but must be subsidized by the taxpayers. Of course they want near-slaves that they don't have to provide benefits like health insurance, workers' comp, or minimum wage. The slave owners felt the same way except they paid the living costs of their cheap slaves and didn't expect the taxpayers to do that."

Good points - You're right...

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Mahmud Abouhalima

1993 WTC bombing terrorist cell member

Legalized As a "seasonal agricultural worker" via the 1986 amnesty

Source:http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/terrorpr.html

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

RESULTS OF 1986 AMNESTY, ALL BAD:http://www.cis.org/articles/1997/back197.htm

[JustPiper]

Bump, will read!

[B Knotts]

Welcome to the New Republican Party.