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:: 1.08.2004 ::
Bush Proposes Legal Status for Illegal Immigrant Workers
I heard on NPR this morning that the President had announced plans to register illegal immigrant workers uner his so-called "temporary worker" program. This program would give undocumented workers temporary legal status in the US.
The US has lost 3 million jobs in the last 3 years. And Bush is now proposing to encourage cheap labor from Mexico to flood the job market. In addition to conferring temporary legal status on undocumented workers now in the country, Bush's program would allow an unlimited number of new immigrants to enter as long as they obtain jobs through a database that would be run by the government and would offer the openings first to U.S. citizens. [emphasis added] That quote is from the Washington Post story. There's more: Labor advocates warned that the president's proposal to have workers sponsored by employers to obtain legal status would prevent them from complaining about job conditions, out of fear that the employer would revoke the relationship and have them deported. Others cautioned that employers could use the threat of recruiting low-wage, legal immigrants to threaten existing U.S. employees and prevent them from seeking better working conditions. Talk about a union-buster. Surprise surprise, businesses welcomed the program, and immigrant advocates condemned it.
A point: this comes in the wake of the huge stink Republicans made about Gray Davis' plan to give illegal immigrants drivers' licenses, in the interests of keeping better track of who was using CA roadways. Granted, a lot of Republicans aren't thrilled about this plan either.
The program sounds eerily similar to one proposed in June of last year by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Will this kind of program actually encourage immigrants to register legally? Probably not: "[Ben Ferro, a former high-ranking official of the INS] said a federal government analysis of a 1986 amnesty program found that more than 90 percent of those applying used fraudulent documents or made false statements."
It also recalls the 22-year "bracero" program (ending in 1964) that brought an estimated 4 million Mexicans into southwest border states to work as farm laborers. You can read more about this program here. For the first five years... ...the number of Braceros admitted was relatively small, and they accounted for less than 10 percent of US hired workers. However, US employers as well as Mexican officials became dependent on Braceros for willing workers and bribes were paid to get contracts. Several years of short-term agreements led to widespread illegal immigration and a growing preference among migrants and US farmers for operating outside the program. However, according to this paper from the University of Texas, "The manner in which the Bracero Program was run before 1954 stimulated unauthorized migration; after 1954 it substituted for it." This is because "in 1954, the U.S. government planned and launched the mass deportation campaign known as [D. - wait for it...] 'Operation Wetback.' The Mexican government participated in its implementation by transporting migrants, close to 2,000 per day, from the border to points in the interior. User fees were dropped for employers who hired braceros." Also, "The new program was attractive to growers in large part because labor guarantees were not enforced." [emphasis added]
In the final analysis, however, the program benefited few beyond the growers. In 1961 the Kennedy administration extended the agreement, though reluctantly, citing adverse effects on the wages and working conditions of domestic farmworkers and the “serious impact in Mexico if many thousands of workers employed in this country were summarily deprived of this much-needed employment.” Is this really what we want?
:: Deb 11:27 AM :: permalink ::
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