Create a Viable Guest Worker Program
America’s businesses need foreign workers, and foreign workers need America’s businesses. A guest worker program which is self-supporting is necessary to the economies of all involved.
The new program should be financially supported by those who use it, and tailored for efficiency. No tax dollars should be used to support a guest worker program. Businesses should be obligated to make a reasonable effort to hire American citizens first, and only if that effort fails should they be allowed to hire individuals from other nations. Joining the guest worker program should include a per worker annual membership fee from both the employer and the employee to cover the costs of matching them up correctly.
When a business joins the program, they would report the expected number of employees they will require and the job skills that are required to fill these positions. The workers would apply for the program through a registration process which includes a one-time background check and references, similar to the applications required for most employment in this country. The costs of the background check would be assessed the worker. A database of requirements and availability could be used to match employees to positions.
Immigrants already living illegally in this country who have a clean record and steady employment should also be allowed to join the guest worker program, but should also have to pay the annual program fee for their prior years of employment, and provide proof of employment and character references from three American citizens. Failure to do so would render them ineligible for the program and subject to deportation.
Employers should be required to pay at least the current state or federal minimum wage to these workers, and the workers should be required to pay all local, state and federal taxes, including Social Security, that would be assessed an American citizen. Should the worker eventually attain citizenship, they should be entitled to receive whatever Social Security benefits their total payments would entitle them to receive, as would any other American citizen. If they never attain citizenship, their contributions to the program go into the pool to support retiring American citizens. They should be required to file annual income tax returns and should be entitled to refunds, if applicable. Benefits that would be available to American employees should be available to guest workers as well, on the same terms. The intent is to provide workers to do jobs that Americans will not do, not to create a new poverty class in the United States or to take advantage of those less fortunate.
No term limits should be applied to the worker program, but the employer should be required to re-post all positions filled by guest workers at least once annually to American citizens and citizens who are qualified for the jobs they seek should be given precedence over those in the guest worker program. Employers would also be required to submit annual reviews of the workers they employ from the program, and report any dismissals or terminations. Any guest worker convicted of having committed a crime (misdemeanor or felony) would permanently lose eligibility for the guest worker program and be sent back to his native country after having served the required punishment for the crime. A guest worker should be allowed to remain in the country as long as he/she is obeying the laws, remaining gainfully employed and providing a valued service.
These guest workers should be entitled to protection and basic rights, but not the full constitutional rights of American citizens. Police, fire, innocent until proven guilty are all basic human rights in this country – Medicaid and other entitlements are not, and should not be available to any non-citizen.
If both parents in a family are participating in the guest worker program and have year-round employment, their children should be allowed to live with them and attend public schools – but be taught exclusively in English. Teaching English to their children is the responsibility of the parents. As with the parents, the children could stay in school as long as their behavior was acceptable and they applied themselves to their work. Repeated or serious disruptive behavior would result in their expulsion, and, depending on the seriousness of the offense, deportation.
Seasonal guest workers or guest workers with only one family member employed should not be entitled to bring children into the country.
The best is yet to come.....
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Part III: A Win-Win Solution to the Immigration Debacle in America
Secure the Border
Any attempt at immigration reform must first control the border. In addition to millions of people, tons of contraband flow into this country from the south. Creating an impenetrable barrier between our nation and Mexico will benefit both countries. It will help America win the war on drugs, and help Mexico defeat the drug cartels by depriving them of their primary customer. Acknowledging that we are involved in a global war on terror gives us even greater incentive to want to know who and what is coming into this country.
Erecting a two thousand mile fence is not the answer. A full audit of the conditions on the border must be conducted to determine the requirements in each area; thousands more Border Patrol agents, electronic surveillance and fences must be used wisely and in combination. Our Border Patrol agents must have the tools they need available to them and the support required to ensure that they don’t end up like Ramos and Compean – a truly horrendous situation that must never, ever be allowed to occur again (and a situation which I’m still waiting for President Bush to resolve….and waiting….and waiting…).
Form a Coalition of Governments
Beginning with Felipe Calderón in Mexico, we should create a coalition dedicated to the elimination of corruption in Mexico and Central and South America. I’m not talking about invading or occupying, or pouring good money after bad in trying to aid our less fortunate neighbors. There have been strong signs recently that Calderón is making a sincere effort to clean up his country. A big part of the problem he is facing is corruption in the police force and armed forces. If we invest in technology for their use, such as video cameras in police cars, we can help him root out the bad players. In addition, we can assist with training replacements; many of the illegal immigrants in our country are good, decent people, and would make excellent law enforcement personnel if properly trained. Our coalition would be a shared operation, open to any nation which makes an honest effort to reduce crime and corruption and improve their own economies. It could not be merely cash given to corrupt politicians – rather, it would have to be a council of cooperative and motivated nations, discussing, advising and working together to improve the lives of all their citizens. For each dollar we invested, we should insist they invest two. Oversight teams of thoroughly vetted individuals from all member nations would be appointed, and regular audits would be conducted to ensure that the money and effort were being properly applied to the most critical problems.
This commitment should not be open ended in terms of time or money. An investment in the range of one hundred billion dollars over five years time should be enough to facilitate a major change in the living conditions of our southern neighbors.
Improving conditions in their home countries is the best way to slow the flow of illegal immigrants. Few people living legally, in their own nation, with gainful employment, neighbors who share their cultural values and a web of extended family and friends would throw it all away to enter an unknown land illegally.
More to come....
Any attempt at immigration reform must first control the border. In addition to millions of people, tons of contraband flow into this country from the south. Creating an impenetrable barrier between our nation and Mexico will benefit both countries. It will help America win the war on drugs, and help Mexico defeat the drug cartels by depriving them of their primary customer. Acknowledging that we are involved in a global war on terror gives us even greater incentive to want to know who and what is coming into this country.
Erecting a two thousand mile fence is not the answer. A full audit of the conditions on the border must be conducted to determine the requirements in each area; thousands more Border Patrol agents, electronic surveillance and fences must be used wisely and in combination. Our Border Patrol agents must have the tools they need available to them and the support required to ensure that they don’t end up like Ramos and Compean – a truly horrendous situation that must never, ever be allowed to occur again (and a situation which I’m still waiting for President Bush to resolve….and waiting….and waiting…).
Form a Coalition of Governments
Beginning with Felipe Calderón in Mexico, we should create a coalition dedicated to the elimination of corruption in Mexico and Central and South America. I’m not talking about invading or occupying, or pouring good money after bad in trying to aid our less fortunate neighbors. There have been strong signs recently that Calderón is making a sincere effort to clean up his country. A big part of the problem he is facing is corruption in the police force and armed forces. If we invest in technology for their use, such as video cameras in police cars, we can help him root out the bad players. In addition, we can assist with training replacements; many of the illegal immigrants in our country are good, decent people, and would make excellent law enforcement personnel if properly trained. Our coalition would be a shared operation, open to any nation which makes an honest effort to reduce crime and corruption and improve their own economies. It could not be merely cash given to corrupt politicians – rather, it would have to be a council of cooperative and motivated nations, discussing, advising and working together to improve the lives of all their citizens. For each dollar we invested, we should insist they invest two. Oversight teams of thoroughly vetted individuals from all member nations would be appointed, and regular audits would be conducted to ensure that the money and effort were being properly applied to the most critical problems.
This commitment should not be open ended in terms of time or money. An investment in the range of one hundred billion dollars over five years time should be enough to facilitate a major change in the living conditions of our southern neighbors.
Improving conditions in their home countries is the best way to slow the flow of illegal immigrants. Few people living legally, in their own nation, with gainful employment, neighbors who share their cultural values and a web of extended family and friends would throw it all away to enter an unknown land illegally.
More to come....
Part II: Defining Success
Instead of seeking to contain a bad situation, suppose we take a step back and try to envision actual success. Is there an outcome that would be considered victory by the vast majority of the participants in this conundrum?
Americans, for all of our anger and blustering, are a compassionate lot. We don’t want people to suffer. We sympathize with their situation, but there’s a limit to how much we are willing to sacrifice to ease the pain of those who have violated our laws. We like immigrants, in general, but have a two hundred year history of accepting immigrants who wish, as our own ancestors did, to conform to the American way. We expect them to learn our language, follow our rules and change their culture to more closely match our own. Far too many of the current crop do not meet our expectations. We wish them happiness… elsewhere. The ideal solution for the vast majority of American citizens would be for all of the illegal immigrants to simply go back from whence they came.
Those living here illegally do not live in the America the rest of us know so well and love. Rather, they live in hiding, constantly looking over their shoulders; taking whatever jobs they can find where their status is not scrutinized and largely dependent on social programs for survival. They watch the news and are aware of our anger. Many are separated from their loved ones in their bid for a better life. They, too, would prefer that they could just go home, but the problems which drove them out have not been solved.
And our third group, those who long for the opportunity to come here to work, legally, don’t want to give up their homeland or their heritage. They want to strengthen their country and raise the standard of living for their families.
Instead of the immigration bill being so heatedly debated and belittled, we need an immigration bill that would fulfill all of these desires. Instead of spending over a trillion dollars perpetuating a crisis, we should spend far less, and accomplish far more.
Americans, for all of our anger and blustering, are a compassionate lot. We don’t want people to suffer. We sympathize with their situation, but there’s a limit to how much we are willing to sacrifice to ease the pain of those who have violated our laws. We like immigrants, in general, but have a two hundred year history of accepting immigrants who wish, as our own ancestors did, to conform to the American way. We expect them to learn our language, follow our rules and change their culture to more closely match our own. Far too many of the current crop do not meet our expectations. We wish them happiness… elsewhere. The ideal solution for the vast majority of American citizens would be for all of the illegal immigrants to simply go back from whence they came.
Those living here illegally do not live in the America the rest of us know so well and love. Rather, they live in hiding, constantly looking over their shoulders; taking whatever jobs they can find where their status is not scrutinized and largely dependent on social programs for survival. They watch the news and are aware of our anger. Many are separated from their loved ones in their bid for a better life. They, too, would prefer that they could just go home, but the problems which drove them out have not been solved.
And our third group, those who long for the opportunity to come here to work, legally, don’t want to give up their homeland or their heritage. They want to strengthen their country and raise the standard of living for their families.
Instead of the immigration bill being so heatedly debated and belittled, we need an immigration bill that would fulfill all of these desires. Instead of spending over a trillion dollars perpetuating a crisis, we should spend far less, and accomplish far more.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Part I: The Wrong Approach to Immigration Reform
The current immigration legislation being debated in the United States Senate has ignited a firestorm of emotion from all concerned parties. It seems that Senator Ted Kennedy and, perhaps, President George Bush are the only ones who view it as a good piece of legislation. Why?
Quite simply, the bill takes the wrong approach to the problem. It takes a typical, big-government approach to dealing with an untenable situation. It seeks to impose more laws, more government control, more regulations and more complexity that cannot possibly be enforced. Those in government have proven to the masses, time and again, that they are poor managers, yet they relentlessly reach for ever greater control and influence on our lives.
Simple mathematics quickly illustrates the impossibility of the proposition before us. The proposed legislation includes a requirement for background checks for all illegal immigrants as part of the process of granting Z-Visas. We are told that there are, at minimum, twelve million illegal aliens currently on our soil. If we base our calculations on the assumption that each of these background checks could be accomplished in only two hours – an insanely optimistic assumption – it would take twenty-four million man hours to perform this duty. If one thousand people work forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year to perform this task, it would take twelve years to complete – if not a single additional illegal joins their ranks. This is clearly not an acceptable proposition, and it is only the beginning of the horrendous paperwork mountain being deliberated. If each of these security checkers drew a modest annual salary of $50,000, the salaries alone would add up to $600,000,000. And that’s just beginning to scratch the surface of the costs of this legislation.
But beyond the physical enormity of the task, there is the question of its utter futility. The bill changes nothing. There is not even a whisper of an attempt to fix the situation; the focus is completely on controlling and managing uncontrollable and unmanageable conditions. The American citizens have reached the boiling point. Too many of our family members have been negatively impacted by illegal immigrants. Far too many of our number have been murdered, robbed or molested. Our children’s schools are overflowing with non-English speaking students, stretching already limited resources to the breaking point. We pay ever more for health care to pick up the tab for those who can’t, or won’t, pay their own way. The daily newspaper tells an infuriating story of our tax dollars being used not to eliminate poverty among our citizenry, but to support people whose first act in coming to this nation was a crime. And there never seem to be any consequences for the offenders. Simply put, we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.
We see no relief in the proposals before us. The people creating the angst in our nation will actually be rewarded by having their crimes forgiven, and we will continue to pick up the bill. What’s more, there is little consolation in the proposed security measures – the plans for securing the border are much too little, far too late. We see a future filled with an endless stream of ever more offenders, a prospect which is beyond unacceptable.
If we attempt to look compassionately on those who bring us so much grief, we find that the future is not a great deal rosier for them than it is for us. They obviously love the land they felt compelled to leave, and have been denied the opportunity to live out peaceful, profitable lives there by individuals far more corrupt than they. Many of them live in abject poverty, and the proposals under consideration require payment of fines that are far beyond their means. It is unclear what consequences they will face if they are unable to pay these fines.
Still others of our southern neighbors have chosen to obey the law and fight it out in their own country, hoping that one day a guest worker program will allow them what they see as their fair share of the American Dream. They do not see that happening with this bill.
Yet the legislation goes forward. Senators line up to offer amendments, adding still more complexity to a lawmaking effort that was completely bereft of value from the onset. Any thinking man would know that there has to be a better way. The very sovereignty of our nation is at stake here, but we are told that we must compromise – we do not wish to compromise our futures and those of our children and grandchildren. We remember very well the founding principles of this great country and refuse to see them mangled in such a heavy-handed manner. How, then, do we solve this gargantuan problem?
Quite simply, the bill takes the wrong approach to the problem. It takes a typical, big-government approach to dealing with an untenable situation. It seeks to impose more laws, more government control, more regulations and more complexity that cannot possibly be enforced. Those in government have proven to the masses, time and again, that they are poor managers, yet they relentlessly reach for ever greater control and influence on our lives.
Simple mathematics quickly illustrates the impossibility of the proposition before us. The proposed legislation includes a requirement for background checks for all illegal immigrants as part of the process of granting Z-Visas. We are told that there are, at minimum, twelve million illegal aliens currently on our soil. If we base our calculations on the assumption that each of these background checks could be accomplished in only two hours – an insanely optimistic assumption – it would take twenty-four million man hours to perform this duty. If one thousand people work forty hours a week, fifty weeks a year to perform this task, it would take twelve years to complete – if not a single additional illegal joins their ranks. This is clearly not an acceptable proposition, and it is only the beginning of the horrendous paperwork mountain being deliberated. If each of these security checkers drew a modest annual salary of $50,000, the salaries alone would add up to $600,000,000. And that’s just beginning to scratch the surface of the costs of this legislation.
But beyond the physical enormity of the task, there is the question of its utter futility. The bill changes nothing. There is not even a whisper of an attempt to fix the situation; the focus is completely on controlling and managing uncontrollable and unmanageable conditions. The American citizens have reached the boiling point. Too many of our family members have been negatively impacted by illegal immigrants. Far too many of our number have been murdered, robbed or molested. Our children’s schools are overflowing with non-English speaking students, stretching already limited resources to the breaking point. We pay ever more for health care to pick up the tab for those who can’t, or won’t, pay their own way. The daily newspaper tells an infuriating story of our tax dollars being used not to eliminate poverty among our citizenry, but to support people whose first act in coming to this nation was a crime. And there never seem to be any consequences for the offenders. Simply put, we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.
We see no relief in the proposals before us. The people creating the angst in our nation will actually be rewarded by having their crimes forgiven, and we will continue to pick up the bill. What’s more, there is little consolation in the proposed security measures – the plans for securing the border are much too little, far too late. We see a future filled with an endless stream of ever more offenders, a prospect which is beyond unacceptable.
If we attempt to look compassionately on those who bring us so much grief, we find that the future is not a great deal rosier for them than it is for us. They obviously love the land they felt compelled to leave, and have been denied the opportunity to live out peaceful, profitable lives there by individuals far more corrupt than they. Many of them live in abject poverty, and the proposals under consideration require payment of fines that are far beyond their means. It is unclear what consequences they will face if they are unable to pay these fines.
Still others of our southern neighbors have chosen to obey the law and fight it out in their own country, hoping that one day a guest worker program will allow them what they see as their fair share of the American Dream. They do not see that happening with this bill.
Yet the legislation goes forward. Senators line up to offer amendments, adding still more complexity to a lawmaking effort that was completely bereft of value from the onset. Any thinking man would know that there has to be a better way. The very sovereignty of our nation is at stake here, but we are told that we must compromise – we do not wish to compromise our futures and those of our children and grandchildren. We remember very well the founding principles of this great country and refuse to see them mangled in such a heavy-handed manner. How, then, do we solve this gargantuan problem?
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