Thread: Panel debates need for immigrant workers

Panel debates need for immigrant workers
By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
March 12, 2009, 10:07PM
DENTON, Texas — An immigration reform plan should include policies for regularly adjusting the number of people legally allowed into the country depending on the current economic demands, an international studies scholar said Thursday night.

By adjusting the number of visas, the federal government will help ease illegal immigration, said Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

"This is a very, very competitive world. We've got to develop immigration policies that serve our interests," Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman, said during an immigration conference at the University of North Texas.

At times, that mean more visas for people who are skilled workers, such as physicists. Other times, it might favor the entry of laborers, such as tomato pickers, Hamilton said.

"The prosperity of the country is dependent on these people," he said. "One fourth of startups in Silicon Valley were by foreigners."

Co-panelist Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors immigration restrictions, disputed there is a need for immigrant labor.

"The reality that immigrants work in all different occupations doesn't tell us anything about whether there is an actual need for immigration," he said.

Krikorian instead advocated for tools that verify whether a person has the right to work.

"Turning off the magnet of jobs, this is not something that's impossible," Krikorian said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6308795.html

There is no need for immigrant labor, none whatsoever.

At times, that means more visas for people who are skilled workers, such as physicists.

"One fourth of startups in Silicon Valley were by foreigners."

Here's a novel idea.....invest in a complete overhaul of our public education system so our own American children can become physicists, scientists, and other skilled workers. Wouldn't that be more logical???

we do not need immigrants, legal or illegal.
not when we have 15 million americans out of work and
and estimated 7-10 million of illegals working

Hamilton's terrible immigration and foreign worker grades (F) when he was a member of Congress:

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/tes ... &retired=1