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11-09-2005, 03:22 PM #1
Guest-worker program faces challenges despite labor shortage
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/11 ... 2bu923.htm
Guest-worker program faces challenges, despite labor shortage
By JUNE KRONHOLZ, The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- In 1942, with American farms short of labor, Congress created a guest-worker program to match low-skilled foreign laborers with U.S. jobs. It collapsed 22 years later amid allegations that the foreigners were being exploited.
Now, U.S. service industries face a labor shortage and Washington is considering another guest-worker program. But this time the complaints are likely to come from many politicians and their increasingly immigration-wary constituents.
That helps explain why a new guest-worker program will be so difficult to achieve. President Bush and congressional Republicans, eager for domestic accomplishment amid political woes, see immigration as an issue with significant voter appeal. But it splits Republicans eager to help business from those concerned about border security, job losses and the nation's identity.
Immigration divides Democrats as well, which is one reason the subject has languished in Congress for several years. Recent television images of violence in France by young men, many of North African descent, illustrate how difficult the issue is to resolve.
When Congress overhauled immigration laws in 1986, it provided almost no way for low-skilled workers to legally fill jobs being added by a growing economy. The result has been a flood of illegal immigrants. By most estimates, there are at least 11 million of them, and that is increasing by about 400,000 a year.
"The economy needs them," says John Gay, co-chairman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, an alliance of service-industry employers. The number of American-born, low-skilled workers fell by 1.8 million between 1996 and 2000, meaning there is a dwindling supply to staff the booming construction, health-care and hospitality industries.
But the intersection of labor demand and supply hasn't been matched by a new legal framework. Because illegal workers use fake identity cards -- or offer no documentation at all -- there's no way to track who or where they are, and whether they have criminal records. Those paid under the table can't be taxed. Moreover, a brutal smuggling trade has developed to help job-seeking illegals evade border patrols.
Two years ago, Mr. Bush suggested a guest-worker program to tackle those problems, and some leading Democrats and Republicans quickly signed on. A bill sponsored by Arizona Republican John McCain and Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy currently has the most support among several proposed in the Senate. It would give renewable three-year work visas to 400,000 people a year who could show they had a job waiting in the U.S. and passed background and medical checks.
But the temporary-worker idea has plenty of detractors. Because visas would be awarded on a first-come basis rather than by nationality or occupation, the AFL-CIO raises the specter of labor contractors recruiting cheap workers in Asia, crowding out Mexicans who then would continue coming illegally.
"Thai workers are a particular favorite right now," says Ana Avendano, director of the labor federation's immigrant-worker program.
Immigration-restriction groups, including the Center for Immigration Studies, argue that employers should be investing in technology to perform low-skilled tasks instead of relying on foreigners. The center's director, Mark Krikorian, raises other practical considerations, such as how the Department of Homeland Security, which handles immigration, could track a large temporary work force.
Some House Republicans, moreover, say they won't consider new avenues to U.S. entry until enforcement of current immigration laws is toughened. The leading opponent of increased immigration, Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, has proposed a guest-worker plan that would let in as many skilled and unskilled workers as employers say they need. But it would begin only after stepped-up enforcement had largely stopped illegal immigration and hiring.
The most emotional fight over a guest-worker program, though, concerns what happens when work permits expire. The McCain-Kennedy bill, and an alternative proposal by Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, would allow guest workers to become citizens. Business and immigrant groups have signed on to the idea, arguing that a path to citizenship would help stop the stream of illegals.
But the Bush administration hasn't agreed. In Senate testimony last month, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said that the president's plan "would not have a legal pathway to citizenship." Workers could come for three years, renew their visas for another three, but then would have to leave, she said.
Guest-worker legislation offered by Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas is even stricter: Immigrants could receive three two-year visas, but would have to return home for a year between visas. To prevent temporary workers from putting down roots, the bill would allow family members to visit only 30 days a year.
Employers argue that they would face labor force disruption if workers had to leave after a few months or years. Mr. Gay, of the essential-workers alliance, adds that employers would be less willing to train temporary workers or launch them on a supervisory track. "We'd like to treat all our workers the same," he says.
The prospect of creating a worker caste, whose members would pay U.S. taxes but would have no social mobility, also offends many. "This is not the way the U.S. acts," says Ms. Avendano of the AFL-CIO, which opposes any form of a guest-worker plan. The U.S. would feel no obligation to send temporary workers to school or help them save money or buy houses, "all the core concepts of the American dream," she adds.
To sweeten the McCain-Kennedy bill's appeal, supporters suggest adding economic incentives for temporary workers who voluntarily leave the U.S. They suggest, for example, returning Social Security payments to departing workers.
But achieving compromise among competing ideas for a guest-worker program represents an uphill fight. The prospect of permanent residency would make the program "an illegal-alien magnet," Mr. Tancredo says. Yet without it, Mr. Gay responds, workers would have little incentive to apply for a visa since "you take away the key reason why it would work."Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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11-09-2005, 03:31 PM #2
In any bill, how can they convince me that these so called guest workers would return home. When in fact there not enforcing the laws now. So why should I believe them that they would enforce them in the future.
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You can not be loyal to two nations, without being unfaithful to one. Scubayons 02/07/06
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11-09-2005, 03:42 PM #3
Guest Worker Program Reality Check:
1) they will never leave
2) it is a magnet for excessive legal and illegal aliens
3) there is no labor shortage
4) there is no need for a Guest Worker Program in the USA
Reality Check:
1) stop the flow with troops
2) deport illegals
3) prosecute violators
4) show no mercy
Veeery Simple...problem solved.
TELL THESE POLITICIANS to STOP TALKING ABOUT GUEST WORKERS AND START STOPPING, DEPORTING AND PROSECUTING....now.
If they ask why? Tell them, it's very simple. It's the Law and Your Job We Pay You To Perform. Either Do it or Resign.
A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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11-09-2005, 03:45 PM #4
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This situation was supposed to be solved when Reagan did this 20 years ago and what has happened??? Not one damn thing except a tremendous increase in illegal entries. The LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MUST be given the authority to take action because there's no way they can wait for ICE to do it. Just look at the RAPIST. Deported TWICE already and right here working and buying a BIG house in Winston-Salem, NC. WHY did he not get a background check when he applied for a loan for a HOUSE? The only thing I can figure is that he paid CASH for the house out of drug smuggling money. SURELY, a bank would have checked his citizenship status before they loaned him all that money??? HAH! NOW, the bank will get the house and whatever money he's paid on it while he languishes in jail for what I hope is the rest of his life.
One thing of note in this article--it AGAIN mentions a guestworker program in connection with Tancredo."POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton
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11-09-2005, 04:25 PM #5
They are supposed to return home now when their visas expire. New Laws will mean nothing without enforcement. The political machinery has no intentions of enforcing new laws because they are refusing to enforce our existing laws.
It is all a Puke Dream; DoubleSpeak; Globalist Garbage.
NO GUEST WORKER PROGRAM.
NO IMMIGRATION REFORM.
Stop the Lies. Stop the Nonsense. Stop the Madness. Stop it all now.
Just remember....you can not believe a word these people say if they are gurgling with the "g" word which stands for "guest" which stands for permanent resident, legal or illegal, taking your job, taking your life, taking your education, your benefits, your space... running the USA swiftly to the Finish Line of a Third World Existence.
That is the goal and immigration is the tool to achieve it flooding our nation with more people than it can sustain successfully.A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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11-09-2005, 04:33 PM #6
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So VERY TRUE, Judy! THAT G word might as well be a four letter word insofar as what it means to US. I just want to grab the bucket every time anyone mentions GUEST worker. If they are GUESTS, they have long since worn out their welcome so they need to hoof it home.
"POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton
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11-09-2005, 04:44 PM #7
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What a piece of propagana. I would love for them to show me evidence of a labor shortage.
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11-09-2005, 05:25 PM #8
There is no labor shortage. It's all utter rubbish. If there was a labor shortage then the prevailing wages would go up, not down. If there was a labor shortage the unemployment rate would be way low. If there was a labor shortage these jobs would be getting big time advertised. If there was a labor shortage there would be no need for entitlement programs. They scream labor shortage so they can acquire more cheaper labor, but stupid simpletons in America who don't understand the simple economic rules of supply and demand always fall for this nonsense. What a great educational system we have in this dumbed down country we live in.
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11-09-2005, 05:42 PM #9
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My yardstick for the NEED for immigrant labor/guestworker programs is a ZERO PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT RATE.
"POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY." Sir John Dalberg-Acton
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11-09-2005, 05:59 PM #10
What is funny about this editorial is that the speaker considers Asian immigrants to be a threat to the employment of good illegal Mexican workers in the American jobs he feels they deserve.
I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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