Posted on 06/01/2007 12:52:13 AM PDT by CutePuppy
The Senate's immigration reform compromise received mixed reviews from business when it was announced two weeks ago. Since then, it's been all downhill.
Amendments that cut the temporary worker program in half and tripled fees for processing skilled-worker visas are eroding support from a key constituency.
Technology firms have been the most critical. Even businesses with less-skilled workers are viewing the bill less favorably.
Still, industries that depend on the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants and a continued flow of new workers aren't turning against the bill. Instead, they hope to fix what they see as shortcomings.
"We do have concerns with the bill as it's written now," said John Gay, co-chairman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a broad-based group of industries that rely on non-college-educated workers.
It's too soon to say whether the bill's pros will outweigh its cons, Gay said. But a failure to pass immigration reform this year, he said, would be a big negative.
"If the measure dies (in the Senate), it is not likely that Congress will come back to immigration reform until after the presidential elections," he said. "Business would be facing more and more enforcement activity at the federal, state and local level."
Gay, who also serves as a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, said the key question is "Will the bill produce enough workers for the economy?" He said restaurants will need more than a million new workers over the next decade but will be starved for them without a good immigration bill.
A Senate vote last week to halve temporary visas issued each year under a new guest worker program to 200,000 was "a very bad sign," he said.
The coalition says the cap "should begin at 400,000 a year to keep up with demand."
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(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
ping
>>The coalition says the cap “should begin at 400,000 a year to keep up with demand.”<<
No matter how many cheap workers there are, they will always ask for more.
Yep.
Probably the first time I’ve ever agreed with the Socialist Bernie Sanders on ANYTHING. I’m not against the concept of the H-1B, but I think the fee increase is a good idea so perhaps it will be used more for its intended purpose of finding specialist workers that aren’t available in the States, and less for simply bringing in bodies while abusing the letter of the law to drive down wages. I’d also like to see it left at 65,000 instead of raised to 115,000.
}:-)4
Just drive around where the day laborers hang out in your areas in the late morning.
At that point most anyone who is going to find work for the day already has, and many workers have already given up and left.
You'll likely discover that there are quite a few still hanging around in the hopes that someone might show up late and they will find work.
Our low end labor force is flooded in most of the country.
>> The fee increase, proposed by Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., would be used to finance scholarships of up to $15,000. It passed by a 59-to-35 vote. <<
I’m starting like that old commie; he’s a fierce opponent of the bill. It’s only because he’s an actual old-fasioned, American leftist, as opposed to the fascists who now run the Democratic party. But at least he isn’t a sellout.
a broad-based group of industries that rely on indentured servants and slave labor to undercut legal employment.
Wow, not enough amnesty for the big business lobby.
Pretty brazen, aren’t they? The entire tone of the people commenting on the bill is like they are talking about carving a holiday turkey.
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