Part III: A Win-Win Solution, continued

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.....