What will be the consequences of a guest worker amnesty program with open borders?
603198
The problem is that in order to get a perpetual stream of low wage workers, big business has tangled the amnesty concept up in the guest worker program.  A Senator projected immigration under the guest worker program, including the increased legal immigration going forward, as bringing in an additional 217 million poor immigrants in the next 20 years on top of those already here.  There is no provision for employers to offset the impacts on schools or other services.  \n\nI think the guest worker plan in this form has to go.  I would be OK with legalizing current qualified illegal immigrants so long as I really felt the border was secure and employers could be held accountable.  I would combine the House Bill provisions on border security with the Senate Bill employer database and penalty provisions.  \n\nHowever, an increase in legal immigration assumes that we have really stopped the illegal immigration.  I think we need to make sure the border is actually secure before deciding whether and how much to increase legal immigration rates going forward.
1123027
Yes, more than likely. And it's possible if another amnesty is to be given to more illegal immigrants again, you'll have a _lot_ more home-grown terror cells before long! Trust me. Just watch and see what I'm saying!
816088
Yes its true. They are very much needed no matter how much those legal citizens deny it. They might find out only if those migrant workers go on mass leave.
954886
The Minute An Amnesty Is Granted \nFrom The Whitehouse To 20 Million ILLEGAL ALIENS\nYou Will See 280 Million IRATE AMERICAN CITIZENS \nGo On The Warpath\n\n\n\nWashington Better Think Twice About Granting Any Amnesty
477959
We do have to secure our borders but,without fining employers hiring them we are spitting in the wind. \n1986 Amnesty is proof that just giving amnesty without enforcing employer sanctions only made the problem worse.
1101086
If there is a full stop at the end of that (no guest worker program until we work out what we need) I'm fine with that.\n\nThe Devil's in the details, of course!
1153325
Sure.  On what topic?\n\nNet fiscal effects of unskilled immigration: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/bg1936.cfm\n\nCosts of illegal aliens:\nhttp://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060604/NEWS/60604001/1033/NEWS01\n\nSome impacts of the Senate Bill:\nhttp://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060527-111535-8806r.htm\n\nMay 2005 order for Border Patrol to 'stand down' where Minutemen were so Minutemen wouldn't look effective: \nhttp://www.washtimes.com/national/20050513-122032-5055r.htm\n\nTrends in immigrant make up:\nhttp://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1405.html\n\nMultiple links on government studies: \nhttp://usinfo.state.gov/eap/east_asia_pacific/chinese_human_smuggling/smuggling_in_the_press/impact_on_governments.html\n\nMore costs and impacts of illegal aliens:\nhttp://www.thevillagenews.com/story.asp?story_ID=6035\n\nDid you have any particular topic in mind?
519153
I don't agree with you, but Americans will suffer if these illegals are given amnesty. There will be more encouragement, not less, for more illegal immigration meaning less jobs for American citizens. There will be more social security and identification theft. There will be even more infringement on American rights as we are forced even more to cater to their demands. Our children will suffer even more as the nonEnglish speaking children slow down the class curriculum. This will basically say once again that our laws mean nothing. More and more Americans will be jobless or working poor and forced into poverty. We will continue on our path to becoming a 3rd world country.
328615
Unfortunately it will. Chavez must be having a field day and the USA is being looked as a dump. It's ashame many illegals live in the USA but maybe we could take into consideration dual citizenships if they want to get into the USA. I'm not against the hard working legal Latin Americans and I really thank them for helping but if you want to live here or stay here, you must choose: to stay here permanently or temporarily. The temp workers should get the visas like now but the gov't must keep an eye on them. If they want to keep on working, they must renew their visa. Each visa could have a special code where every time an illegal comes, they must stay the time necessary unless they want to get a green card and become an American citizen.
934912
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS NOT A VICTIMLESS CRIME\nApologists for illegal immigration like to paint it as a victimless crime.  But in fact, illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population--the poor, minorities, and children.\n\nIllegal immigration causes an enormous drain on public funds.  The seminal study of the costs of immigration by the National Academy of Sciences found that the taxes paid by immigrants do not cover the cost of services received by them. We cannot provide high quality education, health care, and retirement security for our own people if we continue to bring in endless numbers of poor, unskilled immigrants.  \n\nAdditionally, job competition by waves of illegal immigrants willing to work at substandard wages and working conditions depresses the wages of American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees. Ý \n\nIllegal immigration also contributes to the dramatic population growth overwhelming communities across America--crowding school classrooms, consuming already limited affordable housing, and straining precious natural resources like water, energy, and forestland.
443215
CURLIES_10-You Need To Learn The Underlying Issues Before You Become A Taxpayer(Im Assuming Youre A Student Living With Your Parents)\n\nFREEDOMHAMMER Makes The Point Best-It Is GREEDY Unscrupulous EMPLOYERS That ENABLE This Problem And Have Compounded It To This Point\n\nThere are jobs Americans simply won't do, so that the importation of foreigners is essential. Whether these foreign workers are ILLEGAL ALIENS,  guestworkers, or permanent Legal Immigrants is a detail to be worked out by us, the argument goes, but our need for them is unchanged.Even many opponents of the proposed Bush Amnesty assume this to be true, leading them to propose new and improved guestworker programs, with provisions for stricter controls against Permanent Settlement, greater incentives to return, tighter enforcement against Unscrupulous Employers, etc. As well-meaning as such efforts may be, the basic assumption is false — \n\nThere is simply no economic reason to import FOREIGN Workers.If the supply of FOREIGN Workers were to dry up (say, through actually ENFORCING the immigration law, for starters), employers would respond to this new, tighter, labor market in two ways. \n\n1: One, they would offer HIGHER Wages, INCREASED Benefits, and Improved Working Conditions, so as to recruit and retain people from the remaining pool of workers.\n\n2:At the same time, the same employers would look for ways to eliminate some of the jobs they now are having trouble filling. The result would be a NEW Equilibrium, with Blue-Collar Workers making somewhat Better Money, but each one of those workers being more productive.\n\nMany people fear the first part of such a response, claiming that prices for fruits and vegetables would skyrocket, fueling inflation..NOT TRUE..Labor accounts for only about ten percent of the retail price of a head of lettuce,  so even doubling the wages of pickers would have little noticeable effect on consumers.\n\nSeveral people told me they used to do the "jobs Americans won't do" until local employers figured out they could get ILLEGAL Aliens to work for less than half the same amount. As an example, a young landscaper who used to make $15 an hour 10 years ago, can't get a similar job now for more than $8 an hour. Same heat. Same difficult working conditions.  But with the Depressed Wage, AMERICANS – who live in a country where the cost of living is miles above that of Mexico's – can't afford to take such jobs.It's not that he and other Americans don't want to do landscaping anymore; it's just that in heavily trafficked ILLEGAL Alien environments, IT DOESNT PAY WELL ENOUGH ANYMORE.\n\n Younger U.S.-born high school graduates are squeezed at both ends. Jobs that would have gone to them in the past are now being grabbed by college graduates. The lowest-wage jobs are unappealing, and employers will not raise wages as long as ILLEGAL Immigrants will take them.\n\nIf this is what the open borders crowd means by ILLEGAL ALIENS doing jobs Americans don't want, they're right. American workers want jobs that can Earn them a DECENT LIVING in this country. Minimum wage is a fortune south of the border, but it doesn't go far here. \n\n\nthis is to illustrate the absurdity of a "comprehensive" approach to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS , and the more radical of the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT  advocates who are proponents of an "open borders" policy. We don't take a comprehensive, humane approach with drug dealers because they are breaking our laws and causing great damage to this country by poisoning our children. Similarly, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS  violate our laws and Poison our system of Economics by TAKING JOBS  from American Workers, Keeping WAGES ARTIFICIALLY LOW, and Sucking MILLIONS of Dollars of TAXPAYERS MONEY out of our Welfare and Medical Systems. \nNot To Mention The Fact That A Majority Of ILLEGAL ALIENS Live And Work In This Country And Then Send Their Money Back Home To Their
1029035
Nope.Most will recieve amnesty.
491950
What is the question? The current Senate Bill doesn't give amnesty for all. It gives legalization to those here over 5 years, the ability to apply for legalization by leaving the country for those here between 2 and five years and deportation for those here less than two years.\n\nNo clue what will come out of the House on this point, if anything.  The most noise on any compromise at all between the Senate and the House that I've heard is to kill amnesty but leave in place the guest worker program going forward.  Me, I'd rather have amnesty for non-felons already here, and kill the guest worker program going forward until the border is really secured.  I don't think the Senate is at all serious about border security.\n\nHowever, we'll have to see what happens.
910301
That is already an amnesty. If you serve you get your citizenship.
781194
No they have applied for amnesty. It's one of the bills supported by the Democrats who now contol Congress. Perhaps a wall.............. a very high wall between our borders might be the solution to this horrible crisis that we now face.
383280
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International. There is a section of complaints. That's the best that I can do.
509912
I believe it is a guest worker program that allows working immigrants that have been here for 5 or more years to stay as a "visitor". Im not exactly sure though.