Six Questions Bush Must Answer to Sell His His Temporary Worker Plan

Amnesty vs. Enforcement:

Thirteen Questions The White House Should Answer

About Bushís Temporary Worker Plan

President Bush has announced that he will ask Congress to enact his guest worker plan granting legal status to nine to twelve million illegal aliens now in the United States. That proposal was first announced in January of 2004 as a set of ìprinciples.î The public needs answers to the many questions raised by the proposal. Among those many questions are the following.

THE PRESIDENTíS PLAN RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUTÖ AMNESTY

The President saysÖ his plan does not offer amnesty to lawbreakers because individuals who entered the country illegally must admit their crime and pay a fine before they can apply for a work permit. But since this small monetary ìpenaltyî is not in any sense commensurate with the crime, especially if it can be paid by employers instead of by individuals, how will it serve as a deterrent to future violations?
ÝSince no one will be deterred from crossing the border illegally if they know they can merely pay a fine and stay, is the plan not really a green light to millions of others still contemplating the risks and rewards of entering the U.S. illegally?Ý
In 1986 the federal government enacted an amnesty for over 2,000,000 illegal aliens, saying ìthis is the last amnesty.î If we do it again, who will ever believe ìthis is the last amnestyî?Ý Wonít people keep coming with the expectation that there will be another amnesty in ten to fifteen years?

QUESTIONS ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY

4. The President saysÖ that his plan will free up the Border Patrol to catch drug smugglers and potential terrorists. In view of the very real terrorist threat facing our nation and the certainty that terrorists are well aware of how easy it is to cross our open borders, would it not make more sense for the country to first make our borders secure and then experiment with new guest worker programs, rather than the other way around?

5. What is to prevent a potential terrorist from applying for a work permit as a carpenter, meat packer or hotel maid? Will workers from countries with terrorist cells be excluded? How can the government do adequate backgound checks on ten million individuals annually or monitor their activities once admitted to the U.S.?Ý

QUESTIONS ABOUT JOBS

6. The President saysÖ his temporary worker plan will be limited to ìjobs Americans wonít do.î But since willingness to do any job is always relative to the wages being offered for that job, isnít it true that millions of jobs will be lost by Americans to foreign laborers willing to work at a lower wage?Ý When an employer lowers the wage of a job so only a foreign worker will take the job, as is already happening in construction trades and many other occupations, how can the President say this is not taking jobs away from Americans?

QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW ìTEMPORARYî IS GOING TO BE ENFORCED

7. The President saysÖ his plan will allow ìtemporary workersî to take jobs for a three year term, renewable to six years. Yet if a worker does not want to go home because he now has a wife and also three childen born in the United States, will the plan still require him to go home? If he returns home, what happens to his wife and children?

8. If the temporary worker is not required to go home after his term of employment expires, then isnít it more accurate to call the Presidentís plan a new immigration program with built-in preference for people from Mexico and Central America?

9. If the President wants to estabsh a real disincentive for ìtemporary workersî to stay beyond their agreed-upon work period, why not change the law to deny automatic citizenship status for children born to temporary workers?

QUESTIONS ABOUT ENFORCEMENT POLICIES

10. The President saysÖ his plan will include stepped up enforcement of labor laws to punish employers who continue to hire illegal workers. But isnít it true that this same promise was made to Congress and the American people in 1986 and that promise was never kept?

11. What specific changes is the President proposing to curtail and penalize the hiring of illegal workers? Will employers be required to verify a valid Social Security number (available to any legal worker) before offering employment? Will Social Security cards be made more fraud-resistant? Will the mere possession of a fraudulent Social Security card or immigration document be made a felony offense? Will employer penalties be increased?

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CAPABILITIES OF OUR ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

12. If todayís Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement does not have the mission, the manpower or the mandate to æ

… locate 400,000 ìabscondersî who have already been ordered deported, including 100,000 criminal aliensÖ

… or identify and deport all of the criminal aliens already incarcerated in our jails and prisonsÖ

… or locate and deport over 3,000,000 people who entered the country legally but haveÝ overstayed their visasÖ

… or investigate open and flagrant employment of illegal workers in meatpacking plants, poultry processing plants, and on thousands of construction sitesÖÝ

… or intercept vanloads of illegal workers travelling openly across our interstate highwaysÖ.

Ö then why should anyone believe the same federal agency will be able and willing to locate and deport six to nine million ìtemporary workersî if they choose not to go home when their term of employment expires? Will there not be enormous political pressure to extend their ìtemporary term of employmentî or give them permanent resident status? Isnít it more accurate to call it a plan for ìbackdoor immigrationî instead of a guest worker plan?

13.Ý If ten to fifteen million ìtemporary workersî never go home yet never have the rights of citizenship, does this not create a permanent underclass of workers with a separate language, culture and divided political loyalties? Do we really want to follow Europe down that path? ________________________________________

Prepared as a public service by

National Center for Citizenship and Immigration

A nonprofit organization promoting public debate and discussion of vital immigration reform issues

P.O. Box 3044, Littleton, CO 80161

ÝÝÝÝ Hon. Tom TancredoÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Charles L. Heatherly

ÝÝÝÝ Founder and Honorary ChairmanÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝPresident