Texas Senator pushes H-2A
Texas Senator pushes H-2A
Date: Sunday, June 29, 2003 2:49 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
In a September 03, 2002 newsletter titled "Texas Republican is Monster
on the Loose" I reported that Texas Senator John Cornyn was proposing a
massive new nonimmigrant visa called H-2A. We may soon have two
competing guest worker bills in the Senate since Arizona Senator John
McCain is backing a new H-4A visa. Expect them to compromise and
co-sponsor a variant of these two bills.
On the House side, Arizona Republicans Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe are
pushing a companion bill called "Worker Amnesty and Opportunity Act of
2003."
All of these bills will do the following:
* Allow unlimited numbers "non-skilled" workers to have work visas.
Non-skilled will mean any job that doesn't require a 4 year college
degree.
* Allow illegal aliens to obtain green cards after 3 years as "guest"
workers.
One thing is for sure, the momentum is building to pass a massive new
nonimmigrant visa. With only scattered opposition, I would bet odds
that this new attack on American workers will pass. The monster is
truly on the loose and nobody have a silver bullet.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usimmi293352088jun29,0,2347919.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print
A Push to Revisit Immigration Policies
By Lily Hindy
WASHINGTON BUREAU
June 29, 2003
Washington - The deaths of 19 undocumented immigrants smuggled into
Texas last month are proof the United States needs to revise its
immigration policy, lawmakers said last week.
While some criticized tighter immigration policies in the wake of the
Sept. 11 terror attacks for spurring immigrants to try more dangerous
methods of entering the country, others said U.S. officials need to do
even more to secure the borders.
At a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on immigration and border
security, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) called for a renewed look at
U.S. immigration policies toward Mexico.
"In the past 18 years there have been 200 to 400 immigrant deaths each
year," Sanchez said. "Perhaps our immigration policies have created an
environment where desperate people take desperate measures."
Discussions between the United States and Mexico about an immigration
accord to expand guest worker programs came to a halt after the 2001
terror attacks. Such programs would provide temporary permits for those
who want to work in the United States or those already here without
documents.
Since May 14, however, when a truck filled with undocumented dead and
dying immigrants was discovered in Victoria, Texas, immigration
policies have received renewed attention.
Last week Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) outlined legislation that would
allow undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States for
up to three years before applying for residency. Rep. Sheila Jackson
Lee (D-Texas) said that she plans to introduce a bill that would
provide incentives for undocumented immigrants to come forward with
information about smugglers, increase smuggling penalties and get
additional technology for detecting immigrants at border patrol
checkpoints.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said that he is working on guest worker
legislation for undocumented immigrants. The United States currently
has guest worker programs, which allow immigrants with American
employer sponsorship to enter the country legally, but Flake says these
programs must be expanded.
But former U.S. Attorney Peter Nuqez urged congressional members to
consider the problem from a different angle. Instead of focusing on
those who will be coming in the future, he said, the United States
should increase deportation of those who are already here illegally.
"Our immigration policy is dysfunctional because we do nothing about
the 8 million illegal immigrants here," he said. "Once they're past the
border they're home free."
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/stories/062403dnedicornyn.5b44e.html
Guest Workers: Cornyn's idea deserves a hearing
06/24/2003
Any discussion of guest workers from Mexico and other countries was
shoved to the political back burner after Sept. 11, 2001. Now it may be
headed back to the front, and the person rearranging the stove is Sen.
John Cornyn.
This is a good thing. Perhaps it made sense that, in the days after
Sept. 11, Americans would be uneasy about importing foreigners, even if
those visitors are here to work and contribute to the U.S. economy. But
what didn't make sense was that the resulting panic should claim among
its casualties the perfectly sensible idea of a program that pairs up
U.S. employers who need laborers with Mexican workers who need jobs.
In a speech recently to Senate colleagues, restarted the discussion.
Sen. Cornyn plans to introduce a bill that, he says, will bring illegal
immigrants out of the shadows, preserve homeland security, and restore
integrity to labor and immigration laws all by creating a new guest
worker program.
The first batch of participants would be drawn from the estimated 8
million to 10 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States.
In the second wave, individuals from around the world could apply for
the program.
Those who participate would get a "blue card" and be allowed to work
legally in this country. That means a minimum wage, the possibility of
medical insurance from employers, and no longer having to fear
apprehension by authorities all for one year, with the option of
extending the program for up to three years. After that, workers return
to their home country where they can apply to re-enter the United
States legally.
The concept of temporary guest workers has been brought up in Congress
in years past, and it is always controversial. There will be those in
the anti-immigrant lobby who will condemn the plan because they say it
adds an air of legitimacy to illegal immigration, just as there are
those in the pro-amnesty lobby who will complain that the bill doesn't
go far enough toward legalizing foreign workers.
In politics, angering both extremes is sometimes a good sign that
you're doing something right. A guest worker program is an idea that
deserves a hearing. And Sen. Cornyn should be commended for putting
forward a thoughtful and reasonable proposal to create a program that
is long overdue.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1953951
June 16, 2003, 12:18PM
Cornyn set to outline guest worker program
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Cornyn will outline a guest worker program
today that would allow some undocumented immigrants to legally hold a
job for up to three years while working toward full-time residency,
according to a draft of the proposal.
Cornyn, a Republican from San Antonio, called the plan "a
straightforward and effective guest worker program that will recognize
the vital role hard-working immigrants play in our economy."
While cautioning that the measure remains a work in progress until he
formally issues it as a bill soon, Cornyn said the proposal, which he
plans to introduce in a speech before the Senate, also would address
the issue of border security.
"We must bring our broken immigration system into the 21st century. We
must move transient workers out of the shadows. We must ensure the
security of our borders," he said, according to a draft of the speech
obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
Supporters of guest worker plans are hopeful Cornyn's initiative could
help millions of undocumented workers living in the United States
emerge from an underworld status. But opponents are lined up, arguing
that guest worker programs are thinly veiled amnesty grants for illegal
immigrants.
"What you have is a rolling amnesty program (for immigrants) and
amnesty for employers who are presently violating federal employment
laws by hiring undocumented workers," said Dan Stein, executive
director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group
that favors strict limits on immigration and better enforcement of
immigration laws.
The plan Cornyn plans to pitch would give guest workers the same rights
granted Americans under Labor Department laws and would set up Social
Security and Medicare accounts drawn as taxes from workers' wages that
will provide health care protections.
Workers can access contributions to those accounts after returning to
their home country, and the funds would be transferred into the U.S.
programs for workers attaining permanent residency. The program would
be open to immigrants from many countries, not just Mexico as in some
previous failed proposals.
President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox were exploring a
worker agreement before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
heightened U.S. interests in border security and killed any momentum
for immigration reform.
Under Cornyn's draft plan, seasonal workers could stay in the United
States for nine months and non-seasonal workers for the full year, up
to a total of 36 months. After three years in the program, a
participant could apply for legal permanent resident status.
"This is not amnesty," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Cornyn. "It is
not a guaranteed path to citizenship. After three years, this will be a
factor taken into account. It won't get you to the head of the line,
but it will help."
Illegal immigrants with the sponsorship of an American employer could
apply under the program within a year of its passage, showing proof of
U.S. residency by that date. Those workers would receive a photo
identification card allowing them to cross the border legally.
The United States has guest worker programs already in place. One, for
instance, admits temporary workers to provide farm labor during the
height of a growing season if a supply of domestic workers can't be
found, though the program accounts for a tiny percentage of all farm
workers.
High-skill immigrants also can obtain work visas with the support of a
U.S. employer. Nearly 200,000 immigrants applied for the permits last
year.
But an operation on the scale that could result from Cornyn's proposal
has not been attempted since the 22-year "bracero" program that brought
an estimated 4 million Mexicans into southwest border states to work as
farm laborers. The bracero program ended in 1964.
The Cornyn bill will be outlined in detail today and is expected to be
formally introduced within a week.
Stewart said giving guest workers the protections afforded citizens
under U.S. labor laws "would mean people would no longer have to be
intimidated. It would be encouraging people to come out of the
shadows." It would also enhance U.S. security, he said. "There are 10
million people living in this country who we don't know where they are
or what they are doing."
The proposal comes one month after 19 undocumented immigrants died
after being locked in a sweltering tractor trailer near Victoria. The
case focused new attention on the dangers illegal immigrants are
willing to face for U.S. jobs.
An estimated 7 million to 10 million illegal immigrants now live in the
United States, with more than 1 million believed to be in Texas.
Under the Cornyn initiative, the number of guest workers established in
any region of the country would be determined by the Labor Department,
using input from employers, labor unions, U.S. unemployment data for
that area and other factors. Employers looking to hire temporary guest
workers must apply to the Labor Department describing the lack of
workers in that area and the wages to be paid.
A Cornyn staffer conceded the bill likely would be attacked "from both
the right and the left, for going too far or not far enough."
Former Sen. Phil Gramm, whose retirement last year cleared the way for
Cornyn's election, late in his tenure promoted the idea of a limited
guest worker program for Mexican immigrants. But the measure did not
draw enough political support to see it to fruition.
The precise formulations to be contained in the bill remain unclear,
but some immigration experts were supportive of its broad concepts
while others said the proposal was likely to fail through fraud and
abuse.
"From what I've heard, it seems like an attractive idea," said Nestor
Rodriguez, co-director of the Center for Immigration Research at the
University of Houston. "The key to whether people already here
participate will be how much protection do workers have, and how much
freedom of movement."
There are other legislative proposals, including a bipartisan bill in
the House, that address guest worker programs, said Angela Kelley of
the immigrant advocacy group National Immigration Forum.
"Different people are taking different cuts at this, and we find it
encouraging that (lawmakers) are addressing the problem," she said.
Kelley said any successful guest worker program must create a clear
path to becoming a permanent resident, allow workers to move from job
to job and allow worker's rights, such as the ability to join a union.
But Ben Ferro, a former high-ranking official of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service who now is an immigration consultant, said guest
worker programs that incorporate illegal immigrants are a form of
amnesty in disguise.
"Call it what you will, it is amnesty for people here illegally now,"
he said. "And if it is like past amnesty programs, it will be
overwhelmed by fraud and abuse."
Ferro 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.
Rodriguez said the argument that guest worker programs are thinly
veiled amnesty programs misses the point.
"So what? The people are still here, and amnesty or not, they are going
to stay here."
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/othertakes/0603/0622harrington.html
Guest worker program not the answer
By James C. Harrington
DIRECTOR, TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT
Sunday, June 22, 2003
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's recent speech on the Senate floor about
immigration reform was eloquent in words, short on specifics and
alarming in his endorsement of a guest worker program.
Cornyn's call for a "guest worker" program for temporary immigrant
workers as reform is as misplaced as the program is misnamed. While the
nomenclature sounds benign, the reality is that recent history shows it
is impossible to devise a guest worker program that actually works and
prevents manipulation and retaliation against the immigrant workers it
claims to be designed to protect.
In my 40 years of work experience with agricultural employees, farm
laborers were treated as badly under the old discredited bracero
program, which I witnessed, as they were under its subsequent "kinder
and gentler" reincarnations as "guest worker" (H-2) programs.
Any time "guest" employees complained about unpaid wages or
exploitative working conditions, they found their work permits and
temporary visas canceled, and the Border Patrol was called to deport
them, even under Democratic administrations. The 1975 farm worker
strike in Presidio is a perfect example. When the employees struck
because they were not getting paid what they were supposed to get, as
required by the federal program, they were deported.
The only way that temporary immigrant workers will be treated fairly
and justly in this country is if Congress decides immigrants will be
entitled to the same minimum wage and collective bargaining laws as
other workers; prohibits retaliation (usually deportation) when they
complain about illegality; and extends legal aid protection to them in
the workplace. These three steps are easier to administer than any
fancy "guest worker" scheme and will protect laborers against
exploitation more than anything else.
This is where Cornyn could undertake legislative leadership. Last year,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Immigration Reform and Control
Act foreclosed the National Labor Relations Board from awarding back
pay to undocumented workers. This ruling denied equal rights to
undocumented workers and stripped them of their back pay. The employer
made off like a bandit blessed by the nation's highest jurists.
All Congress would have to do to overturn this unfair ruling is amend
the immigration law to clarify that the nation's protective labor laws
apply to all workers, regardless of legal status in the country. And
Cornyn could lead the way.
Why create a "guest worker" bureaucracy that only the growers and
certain other employers want, and through which they have historically
abused their immigrant employees with impunity? They want it so they
can keep perpetuating the same age-old exploitation to line their
pockets with profits.
Besides, eliminating the current two-tier caste system of "legal" and
"illegal" workers would allow the marketplace to sort out real need,
rather than condone exploitation. If all workers have to be treated the
same, regardless of immigration status, then there is no incentive to
bring to this country workers who are not really needed.
As Cornyn said, "We must bring our broken immigration system into the
21st century. We must move transient workers out of the shadows for the
sake of immigrants who endure exploitation and even death for a chance
to share in the blessings of American liberty." But a guest worker
program is not the way to do it. Making federal law fairer, more
effective and more just is the way.
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