Thread: Party Leader Bill Owens Guest Worker Program

Guest worker Bill, The guy who wrote the preface to the illegal alien information book here in Colorado, has a big idea to help those cheatin hearts.

I wish Gov. Bill would burst into flames

Owens calls for visas
By John Aloysius Farrell
Post Washington Bureau Chief



Gov. Bill Owens gestures Wednesday while talking with Helen Krieble, president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, and Dick Armey, former U.S. House majority leader, in Washington. (Special to Post / Lauren Victoria Burke)

Washington - Gov. Bill Owens entered the contentious debate over immigration policy Wednesday, backing a plan that would give private employment agencies the power to issue guest-worker visas to foreigners employed in the United States.

The plan's authors say that a commercial visa process would be so cheap, quick and easy that it would deprive foreign workers of the incentive to enter the United States illegally, which would allow state and federal governments to better secure America's borders.

The proposal by Helen Krieble, president of the Colorado- based Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, "has a huge potential," Owens said. Krieble enlisted the governor's input when preparing the report.

"As a conservative, I like this plan," with its reliance on private industry, Owens said. "We are not confident, frankly, in the federal government's ability" to run a guest-worker program.

Owens and Krieble spoke in Washington about the proposal Wednesday before the FreedomWorks organization, which is led by former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, who endorsed the plan. Owens and Armey were on opposite sides of campaigns for spending measures on last month's Colorado ballot.

Krieble's co-author is Greg Walcher, a former GOP candidate for Congress who also served in Owens' Cabinet.

Under the proposal, the millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally would return to their native countries, pass a background check, prove they have work waiting for them in the U.S. and obtain a visa from a commercial agency before returning to the U.S.

"If we legalized guest workers," Owens said, "these people could pay taxes, and we would be able to identify them."

With private employment agencies handling the applications, matching workers with jobs and running background checks of the sort now used for U.S. firearms sales, a family of illegal immigrants could drive to Mexico, obtain a guest-worker visa and be back at work legally in a week, Krieble said.

The Bush administration and Congress are engaged in a divisive debate over how to deal with illegal immigration. There is wide agreement that America's borders are too porous, and there is just as widespread disagreement over how to deal with the millions of workers who already are here illegally.

Some proposals would allow illegal workers to register in the U.S., pay a fine and join a government-run guest-worker program that could lead to citizenship. Others would require that all illegal immigrants return to their country of origin and apply at U.S. consulates for work visas.

President Bush has advocated a guest-worker program, as do many businesses that rely on immigrant labor.

The Krieble plan could provide an appealing "balance" and unite Republicans, said GOP pollster Bill McInturff.

McInturff said immigration is of particular concern to the Republican conservative base and ranked third, after terrorism/ Iraq and health

OH MI GOD--Owen is insane.

The idea is not to get them in quicker but to keep them out, MORON, IMBECILE, IDIOT, VEGETABLE!

No wonder Colorado is falling apart. Crooke Mayors in Denver and an IMBECILE in the State House.

Poor Colorado.

Such a beautiful state...once.

We're fighting for you Colorado, but you got to stand up and do some fightin' of your own....suggestion....get the vegetable out of State House!

Okay?

And, this FOOL is considering a Presidential run??? HAH! GOOD LUCK!