I'm in a minority here, but I support a guest worker program for this reason. Canada has a program, which strictly controls the workers, forces them to go back to mexico after the growing season, and forbids them any "path to citizenship".
Under those guidelines, having a well-regulated program which tracked these workers, made them pay taxes, but brought them out of the shadows so they weren't paid less than what americans would get paid if they wanted to do these jobs, would solve a large part of the immigration problem.
What i mean by solve is this -- a lot of pressure to NOT crack down on immigrants is the farm lobby which uses this labor, and which really CAN'T find workers in america to do the jobs. If we provide a program for them that makes those jobs available to americans but allows importing temporary workers under strict control when americans cannot be found, we remove a large part of the political support for the stupid amnesty and other parts of the senate plan.
You could certainly implement a guest worker program in a bad fashion, but I don't think we should reject the concept just because it could be done wrong -- we should embrace the concept but done RIGHT. The other side has already sold the name, if we passed a program called "guest worker" that was for part-year employment and threw the workers out at the end of each employment season, the other side would have a hard time with the "wait, that's not what we really meant by "guest worker" argument.
I don't think you are in a minority, I don't know of many who have a problem with a REAL guest worker program. The politicians have not come up with one yet though. 3 yrs is NOT a guest worker program. Path to citizenship is NOT a guest worker program. Bringing your whole family with you is NOT a guest worker program. Free medical care on the taxpayers back is NOT a guest worker program. Anchor babies is NOT a guest worker program.
When the politicians come up with an actual guest worker program that does not include amnesty of any kind, shuts down the border, and does not use the taxpayer to subsidize it you will see most conservatives get behind it.
Til then..............
and which really CAN'T find workers in america to do the jobs
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And here we go with the LIES again. This is a bold face lie. Certainly he can find LEGAL employees as can ALL farmers. He just doesn't want to dig into his profit. If he can't make a profit without BREAKING THE LAW, then he needs to find another line of work or revampt his business plan.
This is such a BS argument. Why not add tax evasion or slave labor, then say "Hey, I can't make it without doing that". PURE BS
You don't understand. The reason they do those jobs is because they are legal, they will get better jobs if they are legal. Or do you want to make indentured servants out of them? I am sure we could go to Africa or China or India and get some really cheap labor for these farmers, or maybe we should let them use under age kids?
On a separate note, am I the only one that thinks Dane is a guy that has his trailer house paid for and is living on disablility or some such. That is the type that is so anti-labor.
On the other hand, we can open our borders to cheap, thrid world produce when it is demonstrated we don't have enough workers and we aren't willing to import them, too.
Other countries have sensible guest worker programs. We do not because our congress critters cannot see the difference between a sensible guest worker program and pandering to the ethnic lobby.
Japan, for instance, puts few restricts on the number of guest workers imported. They don't have to because one restriction provides an economic disincentive to lay off Japanese workers to hire foreign workers-- a 10% premium must be paid over the going wage in the industry for foreign workers. This works great for chicken pluckers (a job Japanese really do not want to do) and talented foreign software engineers (who need to be at least 10% more productive than their Japanese counterparts to make it pay).
Were America to adopt a similar approach, some of the best Latin American construction workers-- roofers, drywall, etc. would do just fine because they are well worth the 10% premium in productivity.
Switzerland's work force has about 20% foreign workers, far more than outs. But again, citizenship isn't handed out like candy. Foreign workers can remain foreign workers for a very long time, but they can only become citizens throught the acceptance of the local community. They also require foreign workers to be paid the prevailing wage to make sure it isn't a ruse for Swiss employers to keep wage rates down.
Ultimately, America will support a guest worker program once our government shows it is serious about deporting criminals, gang-bangers, welfare queens and fifth columnists. The pro-illegal lobby has only itself to blame for purposely confusing illegal immigration with legal immigration.
Oh, and one other thing-- since we have far more people in the world aspiring to be guest workers than we have available vacancies, shouldn't preference be given to those who have demonstrated the most respect for our laws by applying to come in legally? Or learning English? Or supporting American culture, values and principles?
Unless they put them on a plane, they probably just come down here and loiter until they can go back to Canada. LOL!
Fixed it for you.
And Canada shares exactly how *much* of a border with Mexico? They may be forcing these workers to leave Canada after the growing season, but it's quite the stretch to assert that they are actually forcing these workers to "return to Mexico"...
the infowarrior
We don't need a guest worker program. There are enough people in this country to do the work. Pay a decent living wage and you will have plenty of workers. Sorry, no more taxpayer subsidized cheap labor for you buddy :)
Mr CT:
I heard a discussion of this on some radio talk show. It appears that the Canadians aren't fooling around.
But if I understood correctly, someone on the program said the number of Canadian guest workers was about 7,000. Can that be correct?
The key to their program is that guest workers are not on any path to Canadian citizenship, and that they go home after 9 months. The House/Senate need to get their heads out of their butts and design something similar.
Philosophically, I would have to say that it wouldn't pass, though. Our guest worker program must have a "Path to Citizenship" or the politicians won't consider it.