Critics Look at Bush Immigration Plan

[Rose Siding]

As critics begin scrutinizing President Bush's proposal to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers, some are worried the administration will fail to learn from two previous experiments, one during World War II and the other in 1986.

Bush's plan is a modern-day rewrite of the World War II guest worker program that "tore families apart and stripped laborers of their earnings and their future," the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said after the president proposed his idea Wednesday.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, an advocate of stricter immigration enforcement, accused Bush of "totally ignoring the nation's experience with the ill-fated 1986 amnesty program," which granted legal status to almost 3 million undocumented immigrants.

That program "only encouraged a new wave of illegal immigration," said Tancredo, R-Colo.

Bush's plan would create a temporary worker program for undocumented immigrants already in the United States and for people in other countries who have been offered employment here. Migrants would be able to get renewable three-year labor visas, but Bush said they would not receive special consideration for permanent residence or citizenship.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-immigration-lessons,0,321376.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

The glaring problem seems to be, IMO, that staying in the country is tied to keeping the job (which was detailed in the USA Today article, yesterday). I know little about this issue but if the employer knows that so much more than the paycheck rides on keeping the job, how is abuse preventable? Any policy that relies on the goodness of the corporate heart is foolish.

[gristy]

1. Lots of critics over at free republic too...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1055384/posts

[trogdor]

2. It wouldn't

That's the point. Bush wants workers who are readily exploitable. If we had to make sure their workplaces were up to OSHA standards, pay them properly, etc., it wouldn't be worth the bother. This is about cheap-labor conservatives doing what they already do, except not getting nailed for doing it.

My question, which no one has yet answered, is whether the guest workers pay into Social Security. If not, it is safe to assume that the employers don't, either. This makes guest workers cheaper than even minimum-wage American workers, which means that before long, you won't even be able to get a job at Wal*Mart anymore.

If they do pay into Social Security, presumably they'd be eligible for benefits after a period of time. Since the usual threshhold is ten years, I would doubt it very much, but it would constitute a net drain on SS if this were the case.

You see, the point isn't only that we're exploiting foreign workers, but it's effect on American workers as well. This cuts off the working poor at the knees, as if they didn't have anything else to worry about.

[revcarol]

3. Read DK's statement.

Gist is that Bush WANTS the labor to be exploitable, and that's written in stone. Workers would have NO rights (even those that are left after repug gutting!)

SHAME!!

http://www.kucinch.us