From Carl Shusterman
Legislation: The Future of Employment-Based Immigration during the next few weeks, Congress is scheduled to decide the future of
employment-based immigration to the United States.
Comprehensive immigration reform proposals by Senators McCain and
Kennedy, Cornyn and Kyl, Hagel and Specter will be considered by the Senate in February.
Each proposal contains a combination of the following elements: (1) a
guest worker program; (2) stricter immigration enforcement; and (3) an
expansion of the employment-based immigration system.
The guest worker program is, by far, the most controversial part of the
package. To President Bush and its Congressional proponents, a guest
worker proposal is simply a way of creating a procedure to allow U.S.
companies to continue to employ millions of foreign-born workers to fill jobs which American choose not to perform.
Opponents of a guest worker program maintain that if employers simply
raise their wages, American workers will do any job. Call me a "doubter".
Our unemployment rate has been hovering around 5% for over a year. Yet,
the Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about lettuce growers who,
unable to harvest their crops, raised their rates to over $10 per hour. A few
Americans applied, but none lasted more than a few hours. How many of the
unemployed are willing and able to perform stoop labor in rural valleys?
The opponents of a guest worker program refuse to vote for any program
which looks like an "amnesty". Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) of the
Subcommittee on Immigration in the House of Representatives puts it
simply: "A guest-worker program that applies to illegal aliens already here is an amnesty." Representative Sensenbrenner and over one hundred Republican Congressman in the House of Representatives are against any "amnesty". Since Chairman Sensenbrenner will be the chief House negotiator in any Senate-House Conference Committee on an immigration reform bill, this spells trouble for any guest worker program.
If the guest worker program does not include the 10 million plus
illegal workers who are presently in the U.S., there is not the slightest
possibility of either regularizing their immigration status or of deporting them.
That is simply a fact, and building a huge fence on Mexico's border (no one
ever suggests doing so along the Canadian border) with the U.S. will simply
discourage illegal workers in the U.S. from returning home to visit
their families. Also, it does nothing to stem the influx of illegal workers
who enter the U.S. with visas and then overstay. Those in Congress who
think that by criminalizing these people the problem is solved are kidding
themselves and their constituents.
The real solution is to look reality square in the face, and fashion a
solution which will penalize illegal workers, but, at the same time, allow them
to participate in a guest worker program that will eventually result in
them becoming permanent residents of the U.S. Unless there is a light at
the end of the tunnel for them, what is the incentive for them to come out of the shadows and register for the program? The McCain-Kennedy bill contains such a program.
At least one ex-INS prosecutor (The one who writes this newsletter)
knows that the government cannot solve the illegal alien problem by wishing it away, or by an enforcement-only approach. Ten years after President Clinton enacted a "get tough" at the border policy, the number of illegal workers in the U.S. has more than doubled. Congress must realize that, in the post-9/11, world, the United States simply cannot afford to have 10 million persons in the U.S. who are unknown to the government. Every citizen should write to his Member of Congress and tell them that he/she wants these people identified, fingerprinted, registered with the government, paying taxes and learning English.
Whether or not the Congress enacts a guest worker program, the United
States has another immigration problem that needs to be solved, and solved
now. Our country is educating less scientists, engineers, doctors and nurses
than we did when I graduated from law school in 1973. In the meantime, countries in Asia are graduating far more of these professional workers than does the U.S. Fortunately, many of these professional workers have been supplementing the U.S. workforce for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, during the past year, huge backlogs in our immigration system have developed, and many of the best and brightest of these professionals are choosing to stay at home. This does not bode well for our security and our industries.
Our country is losing its manufacturing base. For example, the U.S.
automobile industry is firing tens of thousands of U.S. workers and G.M. and Ford are edging ever-closer to bankruptcy. Why? Because the American public is choosing to buy automobiles produced by Japanese and German companies.
Fortunately, thanks to the immigration of tens of thousands of Indian
and Chinese engineers to the U.S., the top software, chip makers and
biotech companies are still located in the U.S. But with our outdated
immigration laws making it increasingly difficult for U.S. employers to hire talented foreign- born scientists and engineers, how long can America maintain its dominance in these industries? U.S. employers can vote with their feet the same as U.S. consumers. Make it impossible to bring a sufficient number of foreign-born engineers to the U.S., and Microsoft and Intel and other top U.S. companies will simply locate their new plants and hire their new engineers not in the U.S., but in India and China.
Most of the bills pending before Congress would increase
employment-based immigration to 290,000 annually. This would help insure that our country maintains its number one position in science and technology.
