Julie with a B

Friday, May 13, 2005
 
Emigration policy - where the corporate rubber meets the government road.
From today's WaPo:
"Immigration Measure Introduced"
"A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress yesterday seeks to revise the current immigration system by allowing millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to apply to be temporary guest workers and permit residents of other countries to seek the same status if they can prove that a job is waiting for them.
The new visa program proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would allow immigrant workers to leave and enter the United States as they please over the three-year life of the temporary visa."
. . . "In January, Bush called for a better program for illegal workers, saying that the United States "values immigration, and depends on immigration," and should enact immigration laws "that . . . make us proud."
Judy Golub, senior director of advocacy and public affairs for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said her organization favors the bill. "It'll create an enforceable system," Golub said. "Right now, we don't have an enforceable system. Not only is it not working, but we can't afford it."
. . . ."Rosemary Jenks, director of government affairs for Numbers USA, which advocates reducing the illegal-immigrant population, said her group "would support an exit amnesty, like a tax amnesty, that would allow illegal immigrants to leave and not apply a ban on future reentry."
Jenks said the government should force employers to verify that workers are legal or face charges themselves. McCain, Kennedy and other supporters said those measures have not worked."

The truth is that we ALL need immigrant workers. We demand good products at the lowest possible price. This being a free market system, employers will take the cheapest workers they can. If they can't find them cheap enough here, they look in other countries. This doesn't help anyone except the shareholders. We lose jobs here and the government doesn't get to collect taxes on them.

So corporate America needs immigrant workers and the government and you and me as well, need them too. So lets figure out how to get them here safely, documented, screening them for the bad apples, and yes, taxable too.

- posted by JulieB @ 3:39 PM
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