Free Republic

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez testifies on Capitol Hill yesterday before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform. The Senate immigration bill would require that foreign construction laborers here under the guest-worker program be paid well above the minimum wage, even as American workers at the same work site could earn less. The bill "would guarantee wages to some foreign workers that could be higher than those paid to American workers at the same work site," says a policy paper released this week by the Senate's Republican Policy Committee. "This is unfair to U.S. workers, inappropriate, and unnecessary." The...

Protesters against illegal immigration stated their case Saturday on west Omaha streets. Organizer Tim Narducci estimated that 175 people gathered in the vicinity of 114th and Davenport Streets for a two-hour demonstration. Narducci said there were no incidents or problems in this, the third such protest. The group's primary message encourages Congress to seal the Mexico-United States border with a fence or wall and more manpower. Congress currently is struggling to determine what to do about the millions of people who are in this country illegally. The Senate has passed a bill requiring stiffer border security and an opportunity for...

LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America. "I'm proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it," he said of Bush during a "Cafe con Clinton" breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group. Clinton said Bush's roots in Texas — which has one of the nation's largest Hispanic...

CALDWELL, Idaho (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has sponsored legislation that would allow illegal immigrants who have worked in agriculture in the U.S. for at least three years to remain as temporary workers. But not everyone agreed with Craig's bill at a town hall meeting on Wednesday at Albertson College of Idaho. "Get them out!" shouted some of the 70 people who attended the meeting. "We may disagree on how the problem gets solved," Craig told the crowd, "but I'm hell-bent to solve it." Craig talked about the war in Iraq and salmon recovery, but illegal immigration became...

While the U.S. Congress dithers over how best to stop illegal immigration, the Mexican people may have already decided the issue this past weekend. Mexicans went to the polls Sunday to pick a new president, only the second presidential election in the last 75 years that could be characterized as a truly free and democratic contest. The more conservative, free-trade-oriented candidate, Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN), appears to have eked out a slim victory with a few hundred thousand more votes than the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Although Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City...

Mexican politicians continuously demand more visas for their citizens, an expanded guest-worker program, and "regularization" of illegal aliens living north of the Rio Grande. While neglecting to mention that the United States admits nearly one million legal newcomers each year, they also fail to publicize: (1) the extremely high salaries they receive, often—in the case of federal and state legislators—more than their counterparts in developed nations that have substantially longer annual sessions, (2) the generous stipends that they grant themselves, including year-end aguinaldos and end-of-term bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars known as bonos de marcha, and (3) the...

Turks make up the largest ethnic minority in Germany, but there are none in Germany's World Cup squad. Snip This is not an accident of timing - there have been very few Turks to play for Germany. The future looks no different. One of Germany's most exciting young players hails from Borussia Dortmund. Nuri Sahin became the youngest player ever to feature in the German Bundesliga last year, at 16 years old. But despite approaches from the German side, he has opted to play international football for Turkey. "I was actually born in Germany but feel more Turkish," said Sahin,...

June 22, 2004, 9:44 a.m. Post-Americans They’ve just “grown” beyond their country. By Mark Krikorian The Wall Street Journal editorial page published another of its periodic eructations on immigration last week. This one was essentially a campaign ad for Utah Congressman Chris Cannon, the administration point-man on immigration in the House of Representatives, who was forced into a primary (being held today) because of his avid support for illegal-alien amnesties. The reason for the Journal editorial, not to mention its sneering tone, is not obvious. Cannon is way ahead of his opponent, former state legislator Matt Throckmorton, according to...

A Florida company wants to implant its Radio Frequency Identification tags in immigrants and guest workers so they can be identified at the workplace. Scott Silverman, chairman of the Delray Beach-based VeriChip Corporation, said in a "Fox & Friends” TV interview that its RFID implant could be used to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities on the job. Illegal immigrants could then be readily distinguished from those who registered. Silverman said: "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it.” The VeriChip RFID tag is about the size of a large grain of rice...

Chain's use of database to fire employees who don't check out angers advocates for immigrants You may have already seen the signs popping up at your local Dunkin' Donuts shop: ``We follow the law! This company hires lawful workers only. " The signs, which have begun appearing in shops around Boston, make public the company's participation, starting June 1, in a voluntary federal program that enables employers to quickly check the immigration status of new hires. The company chose to participate in the program partly because it sometimes receives complaints from customers who assume its workers -- especially those whose...

They say Senate bill needs assurances on living conditions, pay Picking beets, cherries and cotton and shoveling manure on farms across the United States as a Mexican guest worker in the 1940s and 1950s, Cecilio Santillana was glad to earn a few dollars a day. He didn't complain about living in horse stalls without bathrooms or doing stoop work for 12 hours a day without breaks for fear he would be sent back to Chihuahua and lose the steady work that allowed him to support his family in Mexico. But the 78-year-old San Jose man opposes a temporary worker proposal...

Guest Worker Plan Would Be An Easier Sell If ...there was something in it for me. Hm. Or maybe it's just a matter of priorities.As a normal, heterosexual male, I think, actually, that the Federal Government should first put into place a "Guest Husband Plan," or maybe even a "Guest Boyfriend Plan."Admittedly, I'm still working on the details, but it has a lot of promise, doncha think? (As well as a lot of parallels to what is currently being done to us.)

JOSEPH C. PHILLIPS: Guest workers? Or guests that don’t go home? by Joseph C. PhillipsMay 12, 2006In 1952, the United States passed the immigration and nationality act. The act created various categories for non-immigrants entry into the country. One of these was the H-2 program for temporary workers. In the 1950’s, the U.S. Virgin Islands used the H-2 program to allow unskilled workers from various neighboring islands to work in the agricultural and tourist industries. The best laid plans being what they are, by the 1960’s these temporary workers were being employed for any and every job on the Islands....

The (Senate) bill extends Davis-Bacon “prevailing wage” provisions—typically the area’s union wage that applies only to construction on federal projects under current law—to all occupations (e.g. roofers, carpenters, electricians, etc.) covered by Davis-Bacon. So guest-workers (but not citizen workers) must be paid Davis-Bacon wage rates for jobs in the private sector if their occupation is covered by Davis-Bacon. Presumably because Senate Democrats’ union bosses thought this provision too modest, an amendment by Senator Barack Obama, approved by voice vote, extended Davis-Bacon wages rates to all private work performed by guest workers, even if their occupations are not covered by Davis-Bacon.

According to the Bush administration and the US senate, we need guest workers in this country, presumably to do the heavy lifting which Americans are no longer capable of. I've got an idea for a sort of an ultimate version of something like that... According to everything I read, gorillas in the wild are in danger of outright extinction, mainly due to human encroachment on teritories. Also from most of what I read, gorillas are basically bright, and very easy to get along with, as compared to chimps which should be regarded as dangerous. According to some of what I...

BEWARE FROBL’s!!! You are being sent this message because you have recently been stung by a FROBL. That would be a Free Republic Open Border Lobbyist. Do not be concerned! Their stingers are so tiny it’s laughable. Which is what makes them so darn pesty and contrary. They make a lot of noise, considering there are only about a dozen of them, and are really quite harmless, unless they are able to zap some unsuspecting victim who has wandered into “their territory”. Now “their territory seems to be, well, whatever they decide it is, usually any thread with people trying...

If enacted, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) would be the most dramatic change in immigration law in 80 years, allowing an estimated 103 million persons to legally immigrate to the U.S. over the next 20 years—fully one-third of the current population of the United States. Much attention has been given to the fact that the bill grants amnesty to some 10 million illegal immigrants. Little or no attention has been given to the fact that the bill would quintuple the rate of legal immigration into the United States, raising, over time, the inflow of legal immigrants from around...

SASABE, Mexico -- The old brickyard, known here as "la ladrillera," is the last stop in Mexico for many migrants headed illegally into the United States. This is where the "coyotes" give last-minute instructions to their human cargo, who each will pay fees ranging from $1,500 to $2,000 to be guided on the sometimes-deadly northbound trek into America. It's a three-day walk through the desert, where temperatures often climb above 110 degrees. For Gilbert Reyes, a self-proclaimed capitalist, the business to be in is alien smuggling. And, yes, business is "very good": The number of illegals crossing into the U.S.,...

CHATTANOOGA — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the United States should "lock down" its borders and create a better temporary worker program. Frist, R-Tenn., spoke with reporters before giving a commencement speech at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's graduation ceremony Sunday. "The No. 1 problem we face today when it comes to immigration are the people streaming across our border and the lack of border security," Frist said, adding that the Senate will begin debating immigration reform legislation next week. "It's a national security issue, an economic issue and a humanitarian issue." He also said that drilling for...

MONTGOMERY — During a CNN news show last week, Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, blamed liberal Democrats for the failure of his anti-immigration legislation to pass the Legislature. ALFA, Alabama Farmers Federation was among groups that lobbied against the legislation. The Business Council of Alabama did not even have illegal immigration bills as part of its legislative agenda. Neither of the two can be categorized as liberal. During an appearance on the Lou Dobbs show, Hammon said none of the six bills sponsored by Republicans came up for a vote by the full House or Senate. He said he wants Alabama...