Guest Workers, Yes. Amnesty, No!

HUMAN EVENTS ^ | 18 AUGUST 2003 | TOM TANCREDO

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

A Proposal For an Honest and Workable Guest Worker Program

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.

  Rep. Tancredo (R.-Colo.) is chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.

[A CA Guy]

I have to go eat, but I agree with the title and this PING will get me back later to check it out fully.

Have a great one E E E. :-)

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

REP PENCE: The Four-Step Solution: No Amnesty Immigration Reform

I see the solution as a four-step process:

1. Secure our border.

2. Make the decision, once and for all, to deny amnesty to people whose first act in the United States was a violation of the law.

3. Put in place a guest worker program, without amnesty, that will efficiently provide American employers with willing guest workers who come to America legally.

4. Enforce tough employer sanctions that ensure a full partnership between American business and the American government in the enforcement of our laws on immigration and guest workers.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Rep. Tom Tancredo’s Four-Point Plan for Immigration Control

1. Secure our Nation’s Borders
2. Establish a Genuine Guest Worker Program
3. Improve “Interior Enforcement” of Immigration Laws
4. Remove Incentives for Illegal Immigration

[Jim Robinson]

Looks workable to me. Go Tancredo!!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Although more superior than the Pence plan, Tom Tancredo even acknowledged in 2003 that any immigration reform bill would have to include a guest-worker provision to seek passage.

Now, Rep Tancredo is opposed to any guest-worker plan whatsoever.

It would be in Tancredo's best interest to work with Pence (Since Pence is now the go-to guy on immigration instead of him) instead of against him.

I am a huge supporter of Tancredo but on this very issue I disagree with him. Tancredo is only marginalizing himself instead of working with Pence and others in his caucus.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Exactly, Jim. So why is Tancredo opposed to a guest-worker provision now?

[SierraWasp]

I like it! I love it!! I want some more of it!!!

We have near perfect laws already on the books and they simply need to be ENFORCED!!!

I sense movement on all fronts is this direction and it's starting to feel GOOD!!!

[arosebyanyothername]

It's all about enforcement.That's where the two differ. Why do we keep making laws that we do not enforce. Truth be told, we do not need "another" immigration bill; let's enforce the laws that are already on the books.

[Reagan Man]

Cong Tancredo proposed the following bill in the House last July 19 2005. Its a guest worker proposal, called Rewarding Employers that Abide by the Law and Guaranteeing Uniform Enforcement to Stop Terrorism Act of 2005 or the REAL GUEST Act of 2005

Bottomline, NO AMNESTY and no path to citizenship.

[Kuja]

He knows that the WH will just use guest worker plan and skip the enforcement and the GAO report saying there is about 1/3 of fraud in the INS agency and they won't have a proper screen system in place until 2011 probably had a lot to do with it.

[marron]

Frankly, I'm not interested in a guest worker program.

We allow a million immigrants per year to enter the country legally. No one has yet to make the case that a million isn't enough.

Secondly, we haven't yet shown we have the will to control the border. I realize that everyone is including a "secure border" clause in their comprehensive plan; but if the border isn't secured by their plan, the cat's already out of the bag, the pony out of the barn. I don't want to discuss any kind of "comprehensive" plan until the border is secure.

Frankly, if the border is secure, and existing laws enforced, the problem becomes very solvable. Passing a new layer of laws when you aren't willing to enforce the existing law is a sleight of hand. Its like Clinton insisting on new campaign finance laws every time he got caught breaking the old ones.

I'm not interested in any new category of second-class workers. If you don't need them badly enough to grant them immigrant status, you don't need them that badly. If you can't get willing workers when we already have a million newcomers coming in legally every year, maybe you aren't paying enough, or maybe your conditions aren't as good as you say they are. Indentured servitude is a step backwards. Lets don't go there.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

PENCE PLAN: U.S. employers must attempt to hire American workers

Before going to a placement agency with a job, U.S. employers must try to hire American workers. They will have to attest their efforts to the agency. Believe me, this is a tough requirement that will protect the American worker because people will be watching and checking-out employers.

PENCE PLAN: Limited number of guest worker visas

The number of guest workers will be limited. After the program is up and running, there will be a period of three years when the market and the needs of U.S. employers will set the limit on the number of guest workers. Not letting the market and the needs of employers govern the number of guest workers initially will prevent illegal aliens from being willing to self-deport. After three years of the program, a reasonable limit on the number of W Visas will be determined by the Department of Labor based on employment statistics, employer needs and other research. After the three-year window has closed, this limit will be strictly enforced.

[arosebyanyothername]

You type faster than I.

[calex59]

I don't agree to any guest worker program until the borders are controlled, and most of the illegals are stopped, and existing ones are sent back home, where ever that may be. Guest worker under any name is simply another word for amnesty.

We don't need guest workers, we have Americans who can't get jobs because of the low wages brought about by the hiring of illegals. We need to correct this problem by controlling the borders, enforcing existing law(forget any new bills,enforce what we have now!) and then in about 5 years we can consider if we need a guest worker program.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Bottomline, NO AMNESTY and no path to citizenship.

No amnesty or path to citizenship in the Pence plan either.

Pence has the upper hand here. Tancredo should work with him or risk being alienated in the House.

[arosebyanyothername]

ENFORCEMENT is the KEY, and that's missing.

[Lurker]

From your keyboard to the ears of President Bush.

L

[RedStateRocker]

I have an idea-
Let's revive the following 8th grade test from 1895.
Take it in English and pass and we'll hand you your citizenship papers on the spot, whether you've been here 5 minures or 15 years:

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, KS. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.

2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.

3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.

4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal parts of do, lie, lay and run.

5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.

6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.

7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic
(Time, 1.25 hours)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu., deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?

4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?

5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20.00 per in?

8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.

9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?

10.Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.

2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.

3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.

4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.

5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.

6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.

7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?

8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?

Orthography
(Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?

2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?

3. What are the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?

4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.

5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule.

6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.

7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.

8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.

9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain vein, raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography
(Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?

2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?

3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?

4. Describe the mountains of N.A.

5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwolf and Orinoco.

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.

7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.

8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?

9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.

10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I don't agree to any guest worker program until the borders are controlled

Pence's plan secures the border before any guest-worker plan begins.

We don't need guest workers

Like it or not, a guest-worker provision is going to be part of any new immigration law. Better take what you can get now instead of demanding something that's not going to happen and then the problem won't get resolved for months.