Kennedy plan: Illegal immigrants would get 6-year visas

[AlphaCentauri]

WASHINGTON -- Millions of illegal immigrants in the United States could receive long-term visas under a proposal outlined by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy yesterday.

The legislation, cosponsored by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, would overhaul the nation's immigration policy, permitting 400,000 foreign workers to enter the U.S. every year to fill basic jobs, while bolstering border control and reimbursements to states for incarceration of criminal non-residents and medical care.

Currently only 5,000 worker visas are granted each year, a figure Kennedy depicts as vastly too low. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that more than 400,000 jobs are filled by transient foreign workers every year.

“The American people are demanding we mend this broken system once
and for all,” Kennedy testified yesterday before the Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing on immigration. “The evidence is all around us: exploited workers, divided families, deaths in the desert, fake documents, criminal smugglers, community tensions and public frustration.”

...

Dueling with the Kennedy-McCain bill is one that threatens illegal immigrants with sweeping deportation and border clampdowns. It's sponsored by Republican Senators Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas.

The Kyl-Cornyn bill, which promotes a limited two-year worker visa, lacks support from pro-immigration groups, who say it's unrealistic and will encourage illegal workers to stay hidden. But supporters say it will better protect the borders from terrorists.

...


http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_2893680

[JDPriestly]

1. Is there really a demand for all these workers?

I meet so many Americans who are out of work. Why do we need so many immigrant workers? Is the real problem that employers are willing to hire Americans and pay American wages?

[petepillow]

2. The problem is that employers have gotten spoiled

by being able to pay shitty wages for shitty jobs.

[jsamuel]

3. They are already working

just for way below minimum wage at crappy jobs that most Americans wouldn't do anyway

Bringing up the least of us will probably bring the rest of us too.

[William Bloode]

8. Excuse me,

but thats not true. Many of the jobs they do now and often were jobs U.S. residents would do. Many do factory work, construction, etc and these jobs are wanted and needed by many U.S. residents.

[Zorra]

7. There is always a demand for excess labor. It drives wages down.

Don't want to work for minimum wage? Too bad, peon. We have 50 people lined up to take the job if you don't want it. As a matter of fact, we have so much labor competition we may even lower the minimum wage.

Be a slave or your kids starve. It's your choice. Take it or leave it.

[William Bloode]

10. There you have it!

I had heard long ago during Nafta discussions in the 90's that the real point of Nafta was not to raise our standard of living, but to eventually get to a meeting in the middle somwhere between what the Mexican standard was and our own.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Will they start paying into Social Security?

[Laughing Mirror]

13. Most of them already do

As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

http://www.immigrationforum.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=724

It's estimated they've already paid in half a trillion to SS, quite a deal for SS when you consider the immigrant workers can't collect a penny from the fund.

[Robert Oak]

5. Kennedy, kennedy, Kennedy, what are you doing?

400k jobs that are minimum wage or below, used to union bust by increaseing labor supply of desparate people.

Now on these "guest worker VISAs"...what kind of rights do they have...

who suspects amnesty is better than guest worker visas because the visas
enable corporations to control workers, use imported workers to
deny workers rights to unionize, to collective bargain, use workers to increase the labor supply so people are desperate for a job..

I honestly suspect amnesty is better for then they have the same rights
as Americans...

These guest worker VISAs stink of corporate slavery to me.

[AzDar]

6. I don't know what the answer to illegal immigration IS..but this ain't it!

eom

[mccoyn]

9. 400,000 minimum wage workers is better

400,000 minimum wage workers is better than 400,000 below minimum wage illegal immigrants. A worker making less than minimum wage has no chance to contribute back to the economy. Giving them more money will enhance the economy. This is similar to the Bush tax cut argument, except that we are giving money to people who can't afford to not spend it.

I'd rather see complete amnesty though.

[MrTriumph]

12. Hey, Mccoyn: Stop giving away American jobs

There are only so many to go around.

If Mexico had 400,000 jobs going to Americans, you can bet there would be a fence on the border and Mexican troops guarding it.

[mccoyn]

14. There is not a limited amount of American jobs.

Every person in America is a producer and a consumer. We engage in production and through trade use our profits for consumption. The more people there are, the more production is available and the more consumption to use it. It is broken when there is a population of people who produce more than they consume. This is the blight that illegal immigration brings. Giving these people minimum wage means they can increase consumption.

The people are here and they are producing. Lets bring them into consumption too.

[MichiganVote]

11. And let us not forget that we educate and provide health care

to their kids for free. This is bullshit. Surprised Kennedy doesn't just expect us to put them up in our houses and pay their kids way to college too. American workers and middle income taxpayers just keep taking it up the you know where.

[Sven77]

15. close the borders

stop giving away all the jobs, brings down our standard of living.