Thread: Guest worker rules challenged

Guest worker rules challenged
Ryan Grim

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) sent a strongly worded letter earlier this week to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, objecting to an administrative attempt to loosen rules on companies that hire guest workers. The Department of Labor rejected Miller’s assertion that its interpretation is illegal.

At issue is whether agricultural employers can hire foreign guest workers without first doing multistate recruiting of U.S. citizens or other legal residents. Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, argues that the law is clear and that the agency must require recruiting. The Labor Department says not necessarily.

Immigration reform proved too difficult an issue for Congress to deal with this session; the squabble over the relatively small guest-worker program — known as H-2A — shows how tough comprehensive reform will be.

The recent jostling over recruitment is just the pre-season. The Department of Labor is set to announce broad reforms any day now, although agency spokeswoman Jennifer Coxe said she is not sure when the regulations — which are almost finished — will be released.

But Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Washington-based Farmworker Justice, said he suspects they will be dropped in the next few days, while the media are distracted by their Thanksgiving turkey.

The GOP has long had to tiptoe through a pass with Big Business on one side and its conservative talk-radio base on the other. The former is liberal when it comes to immigration, welcoming the cheap labor. The latter would rather keep wages higher and opposes high levels of immigration.

“U.S. employers should always have to try to recruit American workers before they import foreign workers. No domestic jobs should be reserved for foreign workers,â€

Good Comments from "Waldo" at above article link:


WALDO
Date: Nov. 23, 2007 - 2:12 PM EST

The ONLY "guest worker program" that is ever going to work successfully in the U.S. HAS to be one similar to what Canada has in place and functioning there:

Canada's guest worker program involves GUEST.WORKING in Canada and nothing else.

Citizenship is not involved, nor is any "path to citizenship" involved, either. People from other nations go to Canada to work after they first apply to enter the program and to abide by the terms of the program, and when they're approved by the program, for the program, they go to Canada at the employer's expense, are housed in Canada either at the employer's expense or partially paid for by the employer/s, they work, they get paid when they leave and go home.

They can't bring dependents along.

They have to go back to their countries of origin at each end of each interval of "guest working" in Canada, they have to remain out of Canada for a predetermined, agreed to period of time inorder to continue to participate in the program and only after that segment of time back in their native countries, can they reenter Canada and again work for another "worker" segment of time.

The program is regimented and works because everyone agrees up-front that they're there to work (actually to work, it's not used as a ruse as here in the U.S. to gain other things from the nation).

They don't get paid in full until they're back in their native countries, they don't go to Canada with the expectation of anything but working, then they go back to their native countries afterward, wait out the period of time between stints and then reappear again and do the same thing over and over again.

They maintain their own homes back in their own countries, they can't expect to become citizens, they aren't able to use Canada's social services, they participate in work, then they go back home.

I don't know how Canada handles any children that these guest workers may birth or father while in Canada, but I do know that the guest workers have a pre-existing agreement to leave Canada after their stint is completed if they want to continue working in future guest worker stints in the future (they are disqualified if they abandon the terms of the program at any time).

But in the U.S., we HAVE to disallow ALL incentives as to "guest workers" other than work itself. No access to social programs. No applicants from within the country. All identities checked and established while the applicant is back in their home country. Agreed to contracts before the workers arrive, and, no full pay issued unless the worker returns home after the worker period is completed.

There isn't any REASON justifiably to provide "a path to citizenship" for ANYone in the country illegally, nor who says they're "here to work" yet enters the country illegally and then anticipates having their behaviors erased from record afterward, as if being here illegally was any basis upon which citizenship should or ever could be awarded (it isn't).

And, straighten out the miscarriage of the 14th Amendment, which was never written to grant citizenship to any child born in the U.S. EXCEPT THOSE born to U.S. citizen parents, here or elsewhere.

As long as there are 'anchor baby' awards and indications of amnesty, we'll have illegal aliens here. They may "come to work" but they come to get a lot of other things while they're here figuring out what work they may or may not do.


LogicalSolutions
Location: Boston, MA
Date: Nov. 23, 2007 - 2:29 PM EST
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WALDO: Nov. 23, 2007 - 2:12 PM EST
Canada's guest worker program involves GUEST.WORKING in Canada and nothing else.

You mean they aren't there for handouts? They aren't in Canada to DEMAND Canadians learn their language OR ELSE they are racists? They aren't there to get free operations they can't get in their home countries and hand your neighbor the medical bill? They aren't their to milk the kindness of Canadians for all they can?
What a concept !!!

WALDO
Location: NA
Date: Nov. 23, 2007 - 4:46 PM EST updated

LogicalSolutions: Nov. 23, 2007 - 2:29 PM EST
You mean there aren't there for handouts? They aren't in Canada to DEMAND Canadians learn their language OR ELSE? They aren't there to get free operations they can't get in their home countries? They aren't their to milk the kindness of Canadians for all they can?
What a concept !!!

Yes, pretty amazing, isn't it? Canada actually offers GUEST WORKERS from other nations the opportunity to WORK in Canada as GUESTS and then pays the WORKING GUESTS their income after the GUESTS go back to their own countries and wait their turns until they qualify for another GUEST WORKER opportunity, by agrreement, if they hope to continue WORKING as GUESTS in Canada afterward on another WORKING VISIT to Canada (they violate the terms, they are disqualified from being GUEST WORKERS again).

We should start asking, " what is it about GUEST WORK that you don't understand" the same way we now ask, "what is it about ILLEGAL you don't understand".

Immigration and citizenship are legal processes that have to remain apart and distinct from a GUEST WORKER program. If what legitimate WORKERS sincerely intend is to work, then they can do that through a GUEST WORKER program.

For others who want to immigrate (a lawful, legal process) for purposes of completing their application for U.S. citizenship, they can do that (a lawful, legal process begun in their originating nations).

Maybe Canadians don't have rabid politicians trying to turn them into a voting bloc.

Canada's guest worker program involves GUEST.WORKING in Canada and nothing else.

Citizenship is not involved, nor is any "path to citizenship" involved, either. People from other nations go to Canada to work after they first apply to enter the program and to abide by the terms of the program, and when they're approved by the program, for the program, they go to Canada at the employer's expense, are housed in Canada either at the employer's expense or partially paid for by the employer/s, they work, they get paid when they leave and go home.

They can't bring dependents along.

They have to go back to their countries of origin at each end of each interval of "guest working" in Canada, they have to remain out of Canada for a predetermined, agreed to period of time inorder to continue to participate in the program and only after that segment of time back in their native countries, can they reenter Canada and again work for another "worker" segment of time.

Sen. Sessions and a few other Republicans in the U.S. Senate have basically said the same thing as above. However, Democrats like Kennedy, Feinstein, Menendez, and Salazar will have nothing to do with a guest worker program that does not offer a path to citizenship.

[quote]Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), said the situation “is just further proof that we need to secure our borders, get the special interest out of the equation and move to a free economy where the market sorts out these issues and the rule of law is respected.â€