Unemployment Reaches 10-Year High

Date: Monday, July 07, 2003 10:43 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

http://www.fairus.org/html/07447307.htm

Push for Guest Worker Program Continues in Spite of Dismal Employment
Picture

(Washington, D.C. July 3, 2003) Despite the bleak employment picture,
congressional leaders and the White House are moving forward with plans
to expand the number of foreign guest workers admitted to fill U.S.
jobs. Under pressure from some domestic industries and the Mexican
government, serious negotiations continue in an effort to add to the
legions of foreign guest workers already working in sectors of the
economy ranging from high tech, to manufacturing, to construction, to
agriculture. The June unemployment data indicate a gloomy Fourth of
July for millions of American workers as joblessness reached 6.4
percent of the workforce, the highest levels since March 1994.

For the fifth straight month, American businesses have trimmed
payrolls, bringing the total number of jobs lost to 913,000 since March
of this year. The most amazing thing is that there is not even a hint
of embarrassment on the part of American business or our government
that hundreds of thousands of Americans are receiving pink slips, while
they work feverishly to bring more foreign workers to this country,
said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR). Many sectors of our economy seemingly
believe that access to cheap foreign labor is their right. Meanwhile,
the politicians who talk about jobs, jobs, jobs seem to be more than
willing to trade jobs for campaign dollars.

In addition to the disingenuousness of pursuing an expanded guest
worker program at the same time that unemployment is growing rapidly,
FAIR noted that the rush to move more foreign labor into this country
potentially threatens national security. By their own admission, the
new Department of Homeland Security is still feeling its way around as
they try to play catch-up on decades of inattention to the connection
between immigration and national security, said Stein. On top of
dealing with the formidable task already before them, a new guest
worker program would require significant time, manpower, and money to
vet a new influx of workers from dozens of countries.

On this Independence Day holiday, it is clear that the priorities of
our government are not the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness expressed by our Founding Fathers, but rather the pursuit of
cheap labor and votes, Stein said

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