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March 28, 2006
My immigration plan
Okay, here is the situation as we have it... We have a de facto guest worker plan in this country, where millions of illegal immigrants, mostly but not entirely from Mexico, are in the United States and doing jobs that Americans don't, either because the pay is too low or the jobs are considered beneath our dignity. There have always been jobs like this throughout American history, and for reasons of practicality and economics we aren't going to change it.
I am not an expert on immigration issues, but I've thought about them a lot and this is the best I can come up with:
1. A modified version of the "guest worker" plan advocated by President Bush and others should be adopted. Under this plan, after a period of years -- two, three, four, I don't know how many -- workers can, if they desire and have a clean record -- move onto a citizenship track beginning by getting legal permanent residence as currently used.
2. If they don't want to move towards citizenship, worker permits can be renewed at that time.
3. Remittances to relatives in foreign countries should not be discouraged. (More here.)
4. The United States will probably always draw most of its foreign workers from Mexico and the Caribbean, but we should encourage a mixture of immigrants from other areas -- eastern and south Asia, Oceania, eastern Europe, and particularly Africa (which needs the help the most).
5. Workers who are already here illegally shall be allowed to apply for legal work status and should be given priority if they have otherwise clean records.
6. These workers have the full suite of rights under the American Constitution (with the usual exception of voting) and should not be forced into the inequitable and semi-slave conditions that have sometimes typified the relationships between foreign-born workers and American employers.
Okay, pick it apart.
Posted by Mac Thomason at March 28, 2006 12:50 PM
Comments
Nothing to pick at, but I do think that employers should bear some of the burden by paying wages that come close to offering a decent subsistence. If it means my lettuce and tomatoes cost a little more, or my hotel bills do (and since when do room rates bear any resemblance to costs anyway), so be it.
Posted by: Linkmeister at March 28, 2006 01:24 PM
I should have included that. At least minimum wage (which comes under #6, sort of).
Posted by: Mac Thomason at March 28, 2006 02:06 PM
I'm in agreement, although in addition to wage standards I would add a policy change of criminalizing hiring undocumented workers instead of the current policy of criminalizing the worker.
Posted by: Poser at March 28, 2006 02:47 PM
Hopefully that won't be a problem (if people can get in the country legally they won't be as likely to come in illegally and undocumented) but that should be included. It's way too easy for employers to get away with hiring undocumented workers with nothing more than a "my bad".
Posted by: Mac Thomason at March 28, 2006 02:48 PM
I've always wondered why they never built a few Ellis Island-type facilities along the border and at least documented everyone who came through, just like they did in the past.
For added enjoyment, I suggest reading anything immigrant related from the late 1800's. It's the exact same rhetoric, except the scared folk refer to themselves as "Native Americans" during that era.
Illegal workers shouldn't get minimum wage. there has to be at least some small penalty for being here illegally. Technically, most illegals, at least in the South, are actually paid minimum wage, but like the 1800's, certain things get deducted. For instance, illegals (almost always men) are usually kept on property in crappy little huts durng the season. The "rent" for staying in those huts is deducted from their pay. I've even seen instances where the farm owner will lease-out his property (trailers and all) to men with families. This obviously ties the worker to the employer for an extended period of time, limiting that particular worker's upward mobility. It's the same concept as the Company Store and Company Housing from the late 1800's.
Posted by: Paul at March 28, 2006 07:00 PM