Thread: Sen. Allen Squishy on Immigration Reform

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10880

Sen. Allen Squishy on Immigration Reform
by Amanda B. Carpenter
Posted Dec 15, 2005

Potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. George Allen (Va.) declined Wednesday to support the idea of a fence separating the United States and Mexico, but said he would back a guest-worker plan as envisioned by President Bush.

In an exclusive interview with Human Events, Allen passed on the opportunity to take a firm stance on immigration reform -- likely to be one of the key issues among Republicans in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes.

When asked directly on whether the United States has the capability to build a fence along our border and if it was his top priority, Allen said building a physical barrier was only “worthy of consideration.� He cited economic concerns with installing such a security measure and said he supported comprehensive policies that included a guest-worker program.

Below is the exchange I had with Allen yesterday.


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Does American have the engineering capability to build a fence along the border that would keep people out?

SEN. GEORGE ALLEN: Do we have the engineering capability?

Mmmhmm.

ALLEN: I suspect so.

So, this is the follow up, why don’t we?

ALLEN: Because it would be -- I don’t [think] it’s worthy of consideration. The reason is, while something might be able to be done at an enormous cost to the taxpayers if there are more effective ways of doing it other than a fence, whether it’s with surveillance and more personnel, and surveillance--

Are you in the camp of those supporting the “virtual fence� idea?

ALLEN: I think a virtual fence would be much less costly to the taxpayers. I think the key thing, regardless of virtual or actual fence, which would take a long time. Let’s assume we wanted to build the Great Wall of America, which can be done, it would take years and years. I’m watching the Woodrow Wilson Bridge being built here, which is a much more difficult task than building a wall. It’s not over a river. The key point is to make sure we have a workable, legal, guest-worker system in this country not rewarding illegal behavior. Not this don’t ask, don’t tell--

Do you support closing the border first before we do guest worker or do you think they go hand-in-hand?

ALLEN: I think you need to do all of them. You need to do all of them.

Are you going to put a priority on one?

ALLEN: If you get, well, first you have to secure your borders. That’s No. 1. But securing the borders in itself is not going to solve the whole problem. What we need to do is devise a good guest-worker program. And we should not reward illegal behavior because if you reward illegal behavior somebody will find a way to get in here and they will think, “Oh, gosh I can get amnesty,� and so forth. So, I think all of them go together. It’s a comprehensive approach. We should have been securing the borders much better, years ago. The fact that there’s not even sufficient detention facilities where they catch people and--

But you don’t think building a fence, so to say, or some kind of secure physical barrier is necessary?

ALLEN: I think you need to strengthen, you’re asking about the specific on how you do it.

Well, sure, this is policy, right?

ALLEN: The best way to do it, to securing the border then, what you can actually get done now is with more personnel, is with better use of technologies. You can call it a virtual fence, but using unmanned aerial vehicles that also have sensors that at night you can sense the heat from human beings and the detention centers. Because once you catch those [people] coming in here illegally it does no good just to make it a catch-and-release system. Of course they don’t show up. That is clearly not the one. But doing that alone is not going to solve the problem.

So, you would want all these three things together before you’d do one or another?

ALLEN: As a process, I think, to have an effective, for the safety of this country, for adequate workforce capabilities of many companies and for protecting the rule of law, all three of these matters or principles need to be there.

So, guest amnesty, virtual fence and--

ALLEN: I am not for amnesty. Not for amnesty.

Guest worker? Excuse me.

ALLEN: A legal guest-worker program. And they way I look at it, take the H2B, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this, but it’s a seasonal worker approach. Mostly small businesses, they certify, they prove they can’t find Americans to do work. They show the ads they ran in the newspapers and then they are matched up with someone who is checked out, I mean scrutinized, from another country that they’re not a terrorist or criminal and that person comes and they are a guest worker. The whole family doesn’t come, that person comes.

What states use that now?

ALLEN: All states in the United States. The problem is that there are only 66,000 for these seasonal workers for the whole country and that’s got to be much higher. But that is an example of a legal guest worker program. Same as the H1B for the technology workers or some of the agriculture migrant workers that follow the crops as they need to be harvested. You have these legal approaches.

And you think that is effective and safe?

ALLEN: Yes, I do. The problem is the numbers, particular in the H2B, these are the seasonal workers for the seafood industry, for the hospitality industry, some of the more seasonal work, and 66,000 are just not enough.

So, we just need more of those?

ALLEN: Yeah. But it’s a legal guest worker system. It’s not just don’t ask, don’t tell.
Miss Carpenter is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS.

Hit the door Allen! Your Presidential aspirations are toast now that you have exposed yourself as just another American traitor in waiting.

NEXT...!

Well, I guess that means that Senator Allen would definitely not be getting my vote if they are so foolish as to nominate him. But I have a feeling that anyone who parrots (pardon the phrase GreyParrot) Bush's blind philophy won't get elected even if the right-wing conservatives pool up enough money to get him the nod.

Is it just me or does he sound like a broken record? This guy is a joke if they think that guess worker either way isnt amnesty. Non of them get it.

P

They don't seem to get it at all, do they? I know I've told them that a guest worker program offered to illegals already in this country is like rewarding criminals instead of prosecuting them. I've told them that we don't need any guest worker program at all until we start weeding out the illegals, offering the jobs they vacate to Americans, and THEN we can think about guest workers who are still on their own side of the border waiting to come legally. At the rate they are going, that will be fifty years from now with all the starts and stops. but I have to admit I'm still giddy that they stopped the guestworker proposal for now and that they passed PART of what will help.

What i want to know is do they realize what Germany's and Frances Guess worker programs are doing to thier nations and what it will do here? At least they have safe guards in place as it relates to those that have babies in that country if they are guess worker, which they arent intitled to anything. Germany's unemployment is i think 18% and France is about 13-15% doesnt that give anyone a clue.

Pro

Senator Allen, here's a suggestion. Use your Christmas holidays to start packing.

I am not clear on his guest worker plan. Does he just want to expand existing programs? These only allow applicants from outside the US. Or does he think illegal aliens should be allowed to apply for guest worker status from inside the US? In other words a guest worker amnesty. Anyone from VA want to write him and found out?

There is a distinct difference between the two. Personally, I would be willing to accept expansion of existing programs, if at the same time the anchor baby scam was stopped, and the expansion did not start until after new worker verification began and the border was secured. Also the expansion should be conditional for three years, to be continued afterwards only if the illegal population in the US has dropped below 1 million.

Lets face it people, we don't have enough influence to get everything we want right now in the face of well financed business opposition.

I think getting 90% of what we want would be a great victory, and if it passed as outlined above then we shift focus to making sure the government does what the bill says. No loosening or half-ass enforcement afterwards.

And if the US economy goes to heck in the future, we can then go after the remaining 10% and get these temporary worker programs eliminated.

Tim, I'm inclined to agree with you to a certain extent. But I'd like some assurance that American citizens are going to be offered the jobs vacated by the exiting illegals BEFORE anyone gets permission to hire a guest worker for any job and I would also like to see the employers take a whole lot more responsibility for the workers they bring into this country.

For example, if an American company sends you to Saudi Arabia to work for them, it is their responsibility to see that you do not overstay your visa, that you get a work permit, that you get a drivers license (which expires the same day as your work permit), etc.

If nations we consider backward can maintain a grasp on their immigration laws, why can't we? That is what puzzles me the most.