Immigrant advocates oppose state-run guest worker program


Associated Press - March 6, 2008 1:34 PM ET

PHOENIX (AP) - Immigrant rights advocates are criticizing a proposal at the Arizona Legislature that would create a state-run guest worker program.

The federal government now runs the program where foreign workers are permitted to enter the country for temporary work.

Hector Yturralde (e-too-ral-deh) says the proposed state-run program doesn't provide the housing and wage protection that are in the federal program and thus would leave workers open to labor abuses. He is president of Somos America, a coalition of groups that has organized immigration protests in Phoenix,

Supporters of the proposed state-run program say it would help lessen Arizona's labor shortage and would result in fewer illegal crossings of the Arizona-Mexico border.

http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=7975992&nav=HMO6