A Better Way (A guest-worker program is the best way to handle American immigration)

National Review ^ | 4/27/2009 | Mallory Factor

[Vigilanteman]

In the 1940s, the U.S. faced labor shortages in agriculture stemming from World War II. The government established the bracero program, which allowed hundreds of thousands of Mexican migrants to enter the country as seasonal laborers. The result was a 95 percent drop in illegal border crossings. A 1980 Congressional Research Service report concluded that “without question” the program was “instrumental in ending the illegal alien problem of the mid-1940s and 1950s.”

All this ink spilt and not a single mention of the highly sucessful Eisenhower administration enforcement program that brought illegal immigration way down in 1954 and beyond. For more details, Google "Operation Wetback" or even read this leftwing perspective of the program.

[andy58-in-nh]

A necessary precondition for any type of immigration reform, whether a "guest worker" program or enhanced visas is to regain control of our borders. Unless we stop the flow of illegals and forcibly return those already here any "reforms" will be openly ignored, mocked, and doomed to failure.

There are too many Americans out of work for our industries to pretend we have a labor shortage. We don't. What we have is a perverse set of incentives whereby our government pretends to guard the borders in exchange for cheap labor that isn't really cheap.

[HiJinx]

Well... Ping!

[Regulator]

Some stuffy banker named Mal Factor writes a stupid article that's decades out of date and someone actually cares?

Must be slow news day...

[Regulator]

Another point about Wetback. The reason illegal immigration was so high in the early 50's was due to the Bracero program. Most did not want to go back to Mexico after life in Gringolandia, even with the dominant attitudes of the time towards Mexicans by Americans.

So they brought their families North.

Then Joe Swing was brought in. That ended that...

But the same will always be true of "guest worker programs" of which we have a few dozen at last count (don't tell Mr. Merchant Banker High Up in His Manhattan Tower that).

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary worker. Just like "temporary taxes"...

[hinckley buzzard]

Guest worker programs have worked so well in Europe. /sarc

Yes. Just ask the Germans about all those Turks who were supposed to go home years ago. The Bracero program was successful in that it filled a manpower need in extremis which does not exist today nor has it since 1945. It also served to stimulate illegal immigration because the bracero workers had many benefits and wages that could not be matched in Mexico. Thus it enticed a flood of illegals on top of the legal braceros. The article does not say that by 1964 there were many problems getting the workers to go home and many never did.

This is a rehash of a failed concept by NYC businessmen who won't have to put up with the consequences of their choices.

[ZULU]

Guest worker programs are bad for America.

There are LOTS of people who want to be Americans and would be more than willing to come and work here if we need the labor.

I don't think we should be providing income and benefits to people who are not interested in becoming Americans and have no commitment to becoming a part of our culture.

Guest worker plans will just create a legally exploited underclass of hostile, disgruntled people who will congregate in ethnic enclaves and be a potential source of social unrest. Their allegiance will always be to a foreign power and they will funnel American dollars back to some rotten third world rathole where their family resides.

And finally, guest workers will suppress the wages of all Americans - native born and legally nationalized.

With respect to the guest worker part of this article, Mr. Banker should go back to the books. At this point, I have all I need to hear from Banks and bankers.

[ZULU]

BINGO.

One of the reasons the GOP is alienated from working class Americans.

Working class Americans should be the group the GOP appeals to, and under Ronald Reagan, it did. Today, too many “conservatives” support stealing American jobs away domestically with illegal aliens and the “guest worker scheme” and externally with off-shoring American jobs in foreign ratholes.

The GOP can’t survive unless it returns to its conservative roots and stops pandering to corrupt corporate interests and the RINOs in elective sinecures.

[TADSLOS]

I'm with Billy Ray Valentine on this one:

Trading Places

[cripplecreek]

Working class Americans should be the group the GOP appeals to, and under Ronald Reagan, it did.

Yep and the autoworkers and steelworkers union members were the heart of the Reagan democrats. Too many on the GOP side are bashing them as a whole and not treating them like conservative individuals. Sure there are problems with unions and I say that as a former AFL-CIO member myself but we need to stop bashing them and give them a reason to vote conservative.

It may be fun to say "union thug" but it's pretty much fantasy. Teachers and govt employees unions are the ones who are the real problems in this country and I suspect they really do vote overwhelmingly democrat. The last union shop I worked in was definitely NOT a democrat stronghold.

[ZULU]

I think the overwhelming number of Americans have had it with the drain of American jobs and American dollars overseas.

We have had it with garbage sold to us in cheap bazaars like Home Depot and Wal-Mart. This crap which masquerades as consumer goods is manufactured by industrial zombies who work at slave labor wages under deplorable conditions in factories devoid of any environmental regulations or labor laws. The money from the sale of this cheap junk goes to bankroll a hostile government (Red China) which is out to marginalize or destroy America economically and militarily.

At the same time, this arrangment is gutting us from within by depreciating the living standard of average Americans and eroding our industrial capacity to the point that it would make waging a major war with traditional military hardware difficult or impossible.

All of this is laid at the feet of certain elements in corporate America, which fund puppette career politicians in both political parties who attempt to effectuate it.

[cripplecreek]

I live in Michigan along the I94 corridor. I know what happens when you outsource everything. The entire bottom of the state used to be an industrial powerhouse and now we’re retail, resturants, and welfare. And the saddest part is that 90% of the jobs we lost were secondary non union jobs that might have paid between 10 and 12 dollars an hour these days. Not big money but enough for a two income household.

[ZULU]

Just like the Democrats have the Socialist/Commie faction, the GOP has as its EXTREME faction, NOT the pro-gun, pro-life, anti-illegal people like me, but the Limousine Liberals - the faction that sold out to globalist corporate interests. THEY give the GOP a bad name.

I support free enterprise and capitalism, but I think outsourcing and these opene ended free trade acts are raping America, the American worker and the national economy to benefit a handful of greedy corporate moguls like the people who run Goldman-Sachs.