Thread: Senate Wants Higher Wages For Illegals Than Americans

Senate bill seeks more pay for aliens

By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 13, 2006

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 11-page, harshly critical analysis of the Senate immigration bill on this one point reveals how torn Senate Republicans are over the larger issue of immigration.
Though the bill was supported by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, it was opposed by the rest of the Senate Republican leadership and a majority of Republicans in the chamber. And despite the support of Mr. Frist and Mr. McConnell, this week's policy paper critical of the wage guarantees for foreign workers marks the official stance of the Republican Policy Committee, which formulates and implements the policies of the caucus.
Across the Capitol, House Republicans are no more charitable about the Senate's immigration bill. They announced yesterday seven new House hearings for later this month into how bad they think the Senate bill is. One such hearing is titled: "Do the Reid-Kennedy bill's amnesty provisions repeat the mistakes of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986?"
House Republicans are so critical of the Senate bill that they can't bring themselves to call it by the name of any of the several Republicans who played a larger role in passing it than Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada or Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

"Two-thirds of the people who voted for that bill coming out of the Senate were Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid and Senator Kennedy. So, it's the Reid-Kennedy bill," House Majority Leader John A. Boehner said yesterday when asked why he refuses to credit any of the Republicans who were instrumental in drafting the bill or any of the 23 Senate Republicans who voted for it.

For their part, Democrats have begun calling it the "Frist-McCain" bill, a reference to Mr. Frist and Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has been one of the chief architects of the Senate bill.

Back in the Senate yesterday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter had an even harsher analysis of those -- mostly fellow Republicans -- who oppose the Senate's approach, which would grant citizenship rights to some 10 million illegal aliens.

A recent article he read about immigration in Time magazine, he said during a hearing on immigration, "was right on target in identifying the underlying racism and xenophobia which really grips us despite our denial of it."

But provisions of the Senate bill such as the wage guarantee for foreign workers raise concerns among more than just racists and xenophobes.

"That certainly is negotiable to me," Mr. McCain said yesterday.

The Davis Bacon Act of 1931 (DBA) requires that the local prevailing wage be paid to all workers employed in federally contracted construction or projects done for the District of Columbia. Those wages -- up to four or five times higher in some fields than the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour -- are set by the Department of Labor.

The Senate's immigration bill would require that the higher wages be paid to foreign temporary workers in all construction occupations, even if the project isn't federally funded and doesn't otherwise fall under DBA.

"In other words, foreign workers employed in a construction job for which a DBA wage rate has been determined could be guaranteed wages higher than those paid to American workers doing the same job on the same private construction project for the same employer," the policy paper reports.

The DBA wage rate for an air conditioning mechanic in Alexandria or Montgomery County, for instance, is $30.27 an hour. That mechanic also is guaranteed paid holidays for New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

In other immigration bill matters, Mr. Reid late yesterday killed an effort by Republicans to close a loophole in a federal law that bars federal immigration officials from quickly returning to their home country Salvadorans who are caught sneaking into the country. The provision dates from 1988, when El Salvador was riven by a civil war that has long since been settled.

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the Democratic leader supports treating Salvadorans the same as everyone else but, he said, the amendment is too broad and had parliamentary problems.

• Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this report.


http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060 ... -5701r.htm

They keep pushing it and pushing it. Not good.

I never thought of an American as being "cheap labor"
If this trash piece of legislation passes, Americans would be, at least in the construction fields.

That is quite an outrage. Once again our Senate at its "best".

"This is unfair to U.S. workers, inappropriate, and unnecessary."

I want some of what these yoyos are smoking!!! Are they completely nuts!! My Lord, we have a bunch of certified lunatics sitting in the seats of power in Washington.

But that bunch would be really easy to round up and dump in the nuthouse (even tho they claim that we can't do it to the illegals).

Our own government is destroying our rights to earn a decent living, and they are destroying us as a nation
All for cheap votes, and cheap labor!

I want some of what these yoyos are smoking!!

I think they were the volunteers for the recent magic mushroom study.

They are BEYOND insane!!!

It has to be one or the other. Either these senator's are not reading these bills before they vote on them or they are deliberately trying to make Americans dislike the illegals that are coming to this country and add insult to injury. It is like they are bringing them in here and turning us against them and them against us. This bill seems like it must have been written by lawyers hired by Mexico. It is a mexican dream!

Our lawmakers do not care what we american citizens think. They do not care that we are losing our jobs and our wages are being lowered. That we struggle to pay ever rising bills yet do that with less wages than we had a few years ago. They will care in November!!!

Originally Posted by crazybird

I want some of what these yoyos are smoking!!

I think they were the volunteers for the recent magic mushroom study.

They are BEYOND insane!!!

Mushrooms - that's it!

It has to be one or the other. Either these senator's are not reading these bills before they vote on them or they are deliberately trying to make Americans dislike the illegals that are coming to this country and add insult to injury. It is like they are bringing them in here and turning us against them and them against us. This bill seems like it must have been written by lawyers hired by Mexico. It is a mexican dream!

I hear/read somewhere that is why the Senators have aides/clerks. Supposedly these college (students) grads, read the Bills presented and "summarize" them for the Congressmen. Ask Congress to do their job?

First, they have to learn how to read! (In Engllish)

They don't have the time to read. It's an election year and those running have to spend the last few days campaigning back in their home states. As a result we will see more of this kind of crap presented.