Posted on 01/08/2004 8:03:21 AM PST by PhiKapMom
The Bush proposal
Linda Chavez
January 8, 2004
President Bush announced a sweeping new immigration reform proposal this week that could become a hot-button issue in the November election. For months, insiders have hinted that the president would propose a new guest worker program aimed at allowing more foreign workers into the country on a temporary basis. Widely favored by the American business community, a guest worker program would allow employers to fill jobs in industries that routinely experience shortages of workers willing to do the often difficult, dangerous jobs Americans shun -- at least at wages that allow employers to remain in business.
But the guest worker provisions won't be the most controversial part of the administration's new proposal. Although some groups that want to limit immigration altogether -- such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) -- oppose guest worker plans, even such staunch restrictionists as Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) are on record supporting the idea of guest workers. The real battle will be over what to do with those millions of illegal aliens who are already here.
Some 8-12 million illegal aliens reside in the United States now -- up three- or four-fold from a decade ago. An estimated 60 percent of these are from Mexico alone, and it is no accident that the Bush plan was announced in anticipation of the president's meeting with his Mexican counterpart, President Vicente Fox, next week. The White House announced less than a week before the Fox meeting that millions of illegal aliens from Mexico and elsewhere will be allowed, over time, to earn legal status in the U.S., so long as they have been working continuously, paid taxes and not broken other laws. The plan will impose some penalties on these workers -- most likely fines similar to those proposed in legislation sponsored by Republican Representatives Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe and Senator John McCain, all from Arizona.
These proposals may not offer perfect justice -- who can blame those who resent rewarding "line jumpers" with legal status while millions of other would-be immigrants wait patiently to enter the country legally. But "earned legalization" is probably the best solution to a largely intractable problem. There is no way that the United States can find and deport 8-12 million illegal aliens in this country, and even if we could, we would do more harm than good.
The American economy depends on these workers, who, along with legal immigrants, contributed significantly to the economic boon of the 1990s. If FAIR could wave a magic wand and make these illegal aliens disappear overnight, the rest of us would suffer by having to pay more for everything from the food we put on the table to the houses in which we live. Our office buildings wouldn't get cleaned, our crops wouldn't get picked, our meat wouldn't get processed, nor our tables cleaned when we go out to eat.
Sure, we could double wages to attract American-born workers to some of these jobs, but at even twice the salary it would be difficult to fill the nastiest of these tasks, like processing poultry. But why would we want American workers, who we've spent trillions of dollars educating for 13 or 14 years, on average, to perform jobs that require only the most minimal skills? Even if we got rid of all illegal aliens in the U.S., these jobs would likely go to foreign workers, like it or not.
What sense does it make to insist that we get rid of the very people doing these jobs now in order to make way for other foreign workers to take them under a new guest worker plan? It makes a lot more sense to figure out how to get those illegal aliens already employed at these jobs to come in from the shadows and become part of the legal system. They should pay a penalty for having broken the law in the first place by sneaking into the country or overstaying their visas, but it is better for all of us if they earn their way toward legal status than remain in the illegal netherworld where they now hide.
Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Townhall.com member organization.
Looks like you'd better swing 'em back this way if you really are for conservative justices.
Why? Their plans dont go much further. You cant go much further. What they want is to make Republicans look bad. They have taken the position that they will not stand for a second class status among "guest workers".
I don't know if your figures are correct, but even if they are, that is money which would be circulated in and driving the American economy and not Mexico's. Econ 101 my friend. Consumption in our economy boosts our GDP. The shift of capital (money sent home to Mexico) does not!
Rush just said we have laws against murder; do we just throw up are hands and not try to bring about justice? He said we could start deporting the illegals if we really wanted to.
Most murder cases are not solved but police officers with integrity try to solve as many as they can. Similarly,although it is impossible to find and deport every illegal alien, INS officials with integrity will make the same effort.
No. I prefer the market place. If the need for hotel workers is so great and the supply so scarce, then the hotels will have to raise wages or figure out how to use their people better. I don't want the federal government to get involved except to secure our borders so we don't have illegal immigrants skewing the marketplace.
It is already illegal to hire illegals. The problem is no enforcement. We're told the amnesty is unavoidable because we just don't have the resources to ferret out every employer who has hired illegals. At the same time we're told that this program is different -- that we will now go out there and do the enforcement we don't have the resources to do, which makes the amnesty necessary in the first place. Really inspires confidence, doesn't it?
Which is contrived because if they can enforce this proposal then it would be even easier to enforce our current laws.
Immigrant? Not me Baby! I was born here!
Oh, and by the way. Your question above about illegal aliens and their health care shows you are a newbie on here.
This is why so many of our health care facilities are going broke! They are using the emergency rooms and hospitals for their emergency and basic care. The law says they cannot be refused simply because they cannot pay and the government will not reimburse the care givers.
And now you know a little more.
Yes, they will be allowed in. But they can no longer be hired as cops in Riverside County, California.
Unfortunately, this is not part of the proposal. So you can already guess what kind of enforcement we'll have.
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