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1. SECURE THE BORDERS
The starting point for any discussion of immigration reform must be stronger border enforcement. A secure nation is every citizen’s right. Both Democrats and Republicans agree law enforcement resources should be maximized to protect our national security and safeguard against criminal activity through whatever means are necessary, including deploying more National Guard troops along the borders and completing a physical and/or technological fence using the latest equipment. Security methods should be determined by border security professionals, not politicians.
2. GUEST WORKER PROGRAM ALLOWING IMMIGRANTS TO WORK HERE LEGALLY
The United States should utilize free market principles to meet the labor demands of certain American business by allowing temporary immigrant labor to legally enter as part of a guest worker program. The program would also allow current undocumented workers to “transition” to legal guest worker status, and after some period of time and the completion of additional requirements such as English proficiency, guest workers would be eligible for a pathway to legal residency. This program is independent of the citizenship process and could be established as follows:
3. PROGRAM ENFORCEMENT AND EMPLOYER SUPPORT
Once a guest worker program and the smart card system are fully implemented, there is no excuse for businesses to employ undocumented labor. The smart card will allow prompt identification for employers and law enforcement, and eliminate ambiguous and uncertain areas for employers. Those employers not complying with the program must be subject to serious penalties.
CONCLUSION
This policy statement is intended to serve as a broad framework from which policy makers can derive specific legislative solutions. By no means is this intended to address the myriad of details that can and will arise when specific legislation is proposed, enacted, and implemented. We believe these three steps will put America on the path of solving the enduring political and economic problem of illegal immigration and border security by allowing the free market to dictate and regulate employment needs, and provides a means to effectively solve the issue of current undocumented residents.
Once legal residents, are they then barred from becoming citizens? It seems like once they are legal residents, like other legal residents, they can then petition for citizenship. Am I missing something?
Our plan does not involve citizenship, however it does not ban anyone who wants to go through the citizenship process that is already in place within our constitution
The other issue that isn’t being discussed is the “Give us Free” everything “Or they’ll shoot more AZ Cops” that was on the protest sign from the LA riots. Giving in or sounding as though the Party is giving in to that kind of threat, and it IS a Threat, only undermines everything we stand for as GOP voters and representatives, When i saw that sign, which, in color did NOT look photoshopped, i was deeply offended. Who are Illegal aliens to Demand of US, the Citizens of the USA? Who are they to Threaten our Law Enforcement Personnel, who are just men and women upholding the Laws of our country and what gives them the right to Shoot them just because we don’t give illegals “Free homes, free food, free medical or free jobs with no taxes”? We certainly don’t “Owe” them anything we had to Earn ourselves, in my opinion and giving in only tells them that Threats will get them everything they demand. Face it-we deal with them or we surrender. We dont give in to threats.
Finally! Ignoring reality is not going to accomplish anything.
Reforming the whole tedious guest worker/immigration process should be part of the plan. Increase quotas guest worker permits to meet labor needs, keep it simple.
yes the whole system needs to get fixed, but we felt we could only take on one piece at a time
There are 23 Million Americans out of work with 7 Million illegal workers. We’re not growing millions of jobs per year. Do the math, eventually Americans will be taking these jobs. That proposal might work with 5% unemployment but not with 20% in the San Bernardino and Central Valley areas. This is misguided.
You are missing the point, the people who are on the other side of the border would only get a permit if they have a job waiting, no job no permit, for the people already here who pass all the requirements, many have jobs in the service industry, and agriculture picking in the fields that many Americans will not take, do you think the farmers would want to go through the hassle of getting guest workers if they had a plethera of Americans ready to pick at minimum wage. Now these people are accounted for , paying taxes and it is a step in resolving a broken system better then the option of doing nothing and continuing to ignore it.
No.You are missing the point.If employers pay enough they can get help.I am willing to pay more if U.S.citezens do the work.1.build the fence.2.penalise employers who hire illegals.3.when the illegas can’t get jobs they will go home opening up more jobs for U.S.citezens.(many will be immigrants…legal)
More proof the OC GOP is clueless about Latinos and always will be…
You are Wrong, I am a latino, I may be blonde but not clueless and this plan was polled among high voting latinos Dems Republicans and independents and it got a 91% approval.
In response to the issue of jobs, we need to look at high-level jobs being replaced by non-citizens. Two prime examples of this, the medical field and professorships in universities being filled by non-native born Americans. These positions are frequently filled by well-financed foreign students entering the US on student VISAs, taking the seats of Americans and shaping future American policies. US public universities funded by tax-payers should not cater to foreign students. Private univerisites should not receive federal funding.
You are 100% correct we need to reform the H1b visas too, thats next!!
Americans complain about illegals who come and work in the US. I know personally about how Mexicans working our crops are treated……….AND CHEATED. And as a professional(DDS), how American businesses cheat the Mexicans and refuse to tend to their medical needs when they are seriously hurt on the job……because they think these employes are ignorant of the law and because they are illegal. Somehow that gives Americans the opportunity to violate the law and not report these illegals as their employes, underpar them and not report to the government abour their empoyes and therefore, cheat our goverment by not paying their due.
Your comments about what you want legislated is plain and simple a plan for legally taking advantage of poor people. If you don’t want Mexicans, then make sure they stay in their country. You are doing them no favor by what you propose. Furthermore, certainly you not ignorant of the fact that Americans do not want to do the jobs that these Mexicans would come to do. Americans would rather go unemployed and on welfare.
I am 71 years old and I speak from first hand knowledge and professional experience….when I advocated for my patients personally, took abusive employers to task and on the threat of reporting them to the appropriate authorities,injuries and
believe me I saw some severely injured employees. Only then were the Mexican’s injuries taken care of by the abusive American employer.
Perhaps what you should do is hold some seminars to convince Americans to do the work that American needs done so we won’t have to bring over those undesireable Mexicans.
This plan makes neither economic nor political sense.
Economically, it makes no sense because industries demand for cheaper labor is infinite, but the costs of that labor is externalized onto society at large. Sure fast food franchises might benefit from being able to hire 30 year old immigrants rather than teens — none of that dealing with school schedules etc. And it is great to be able to get your lawn mowed for $10 under the table. The thing is, that 30 year old burger flipper or lawn mower has 3 kids in the school system, costing the state way more than he and his wife will ever pay in taxes. Add in costs like pro-rated Section 8 housing for US born children, ‘free’ school breakfasts and lunches, the additional police and fire protection required for an increased population, and that cheap and reliable immigrant labor pool is very expensive indeed. Importing people is *not* like importing machine tools or TVs.
Politically, as a commenter above shows, this will win the GOP no points with ‘Latinos’. The Latino political class wants more Latino *citizens* to vote for them, and rank-and-file Latinos will not vote GOP because they are, in general, poor. Keeping the immigrant labor pool stocked with freshly arrived immigrants will just keep ‘older’ immigrants poor, ensuring they continue to vote Democratic.
Mr. Young,
You are absolutely correct. The need for cheap labor will never end. Two companies in my town “needed” to bring in employees from Mexico & other countries to have workers for jobs “Americans just wouldn’t do”. Of course they were only paying $7/hr for those jobs and they were not burger flipping jobs. These companies don’t offer healthcare so who pays when these employees go to the hospital?? Who pays to educate their children?? Now we are going to bring more cheap labor here to push wages lower? Great idea.
Anyone who thinks these people will vote for the GOP are delirious. How did that work out after Reagan handed out amnesty?? Did H W Bush rake in the latino vote?? These people come from a different political system and are NOT conservative/Republican. They will vote for “stuff” just as they have done in the last 20 elections. Get real, you are bringing in millions of democratic voters.
This is absolutely wonderful and pretty much covers all areas in this great problem. It should satisfy both immigrants & US citizens as well. I don’t understand why our politicians (liberals) just do not get this.
@Mitchell Young: The policy measure is a good starting point. Sure it is not perfect and some adjustments would need to be made along the ways. But at least it is something put on the table for people get the discussion started. Because at this point there has been little to no discussion going on accept dreams of rounding people up like cattle and shipping them out. And that does not make an economic sense. As for the political part of it, the way to circumvent that is to go directly to the Latino community with it for feedback. And you go to people you think are most likely to oppose it and ask for the feedback and suggestions in making it better.
In the past when immigration has come up fellow republicans have appeared to be punitive and at times exploitative in the approach. So this is a welcomed difference from ways it has been presented in the past.
So my final thoughts are to take it to the people, get the feedback, make the necessary changes or compromises and then move forward with it.
I immigrated to USA back in 1979. I spent couple of years in OC with former OC GOP Chair Tom Fuentes. I have great respect for the Lincoln Club but its Three-Point, Common-Sense Approach is nothing new than any other proposed in the past; It is superficial. I have written “Framework for Comprehensive Path to Citizenship 2012″ that I will submit to a GOP congress member who has shown interest to see it. I invited a Dem congress member but the member has shown no interest (this was expected) My proposal covers all concerns and approaches to an immigration reform. I expect my old friends from OC to support it as they did when I worked with former congressman Diaz-Balart to pass the NACARA legislation. Nonetheless, I do commend the OC Lincoln Club for your leadership, and approach to this sensitive matter.
The only jobs that I know of that Americans will not do , as a rule is Agricultural work. Especially in Urban areas I cannot think of a single job for them. Most agricultural work is seasonal and only lasts for very short periods of time. In many of these areas there are small populations to begin with and there is just not a pool of people large enough to draw on. Americans are not likely to want to move every couple of months to follow agricultural work. The above comments only apply to those people who do not have college degrees , and not doctors, lawyers ,engineers, ect.
This was the role they filled for many years until they started to stay and take jobs in other areas like construction. Granted the economy was better in days gone by and it was not a problem. The fact is that manufacturing has declined in this country and outside of seasonal agricultural work I cannot see a real demand for less educated temporary workers that would not affect less educated Americans.I think this is the problem a lot of people have with this idea. That the balance between demand for labor and labor supply in most cases is the only bargaining power many Americans outside of Unions have. There has to be somewhat more demand for labor over supply in order for workers to be assured of earning a living wage.
As of now this bargaining power has been totally eliminated by the large amounts of Illegals , especially in construction. In addition giving permits for family members may be a problem for some. Education is a major issue and by bringing their families with them we would be obligated to provide these services. The law does not exclude their children from attending schools, receiving health care and other types of entitlement benefits.
I would have to assume the point of having the guest worker program is to fill jobs that Americans REAALLY will not do , as opposed to the jobs that we are told now Americans will not do , but did do and would do again if wages went up, to realistic levels and the labor pool were reduced , like construction.
If that is so then these jobs would not really pay that much to begin with and would be more migratory in nature. If this is the goal, which it should be to be consistent with the best interests of the American people in mind, then they would not really be earning what would be considered a living wage in this country. This means that they could earn enough to return to their countries of origin with sufficient funds to live till the next season but would not earn enough to support a family unit without public assistance in the United States. This is predominantly how the migrant labor force operated until things started to go wrong and they simply stayed. It is unlikely in the future that there will be the need for general labor outside of agricultural work, due to the continued loss of manufacturing and the decline of blue collar jobs in general.
If we had an immigration system that recognized needs and facilitated quick processing we wouldn’t be talking about illegal immigrants. The argument would be about why immigrants get work and citizens don’t. If work conditions are monitored as they should be it would be a level playing field for those competing for the work.
The issue is here to stay-people come to the U.S. for opportunity (both real and perceived). Think about it-they take risks and spend money to get here. They are creative,resourceful and work hard. If the work wasn’t available or if it was undesirable (in their minds, compared to alternatives in their native country) why would they come? Sure we provide some benefits, but they fill a need too. “Gaming” the benefit system is widespread and it certainly isn’t just immigrants taking advantage of the holes in the handout system. Employers needing services would have to find a way to connect with these people through an intermediary (corrupt-free) so as to meet all the requirements. If current citizens want to apply for these jobs they can and employers can choose them. If a person comes here on a contract with the program, they should also agree that children born in the U.S. during the contract are not citizens. We will always have to deal with the guest worker who has a child with a citizen.
We assume the program would be for Latinos, but it looks like many could come from elsewhere, including China (See OC Register article today). It should be open to all. As the policy statement suggests, it is work in progress. There is a solution.
It is not as if the policy or program would be permanent, it can be changed to correct flaws that are discovered and changed as conditions change. Don’t let perfection get in the way of good. Sorry to have such a rambling stream of thought.
It has been my observation and experience, that there are no jobs, I repeat, No Jobs, that Americans won’t do. Has anybody ever watched the TV SHOW Dirty Jobs?
Americans work in Coal Mines,Steel Mills, Foundry’s,High Rise Construction, Bridge Building, Tunnel Digging, and the list goes on and on.
Before the introduction of migrant, all agriculture activities, including the harvesting, was performed by Americans.
To my knowledge there is no job performed by illegal residents because they perform the work better than Americans, if that was the case they would be paid more money than Americans.
By far, the primary reason why illegal residents are employed in any job is because they will work for dramatically less compensation than an American. The reason for this is because the illegal residents have no alternative. Compare the wages in any industry, and any comparable job, in Mexico or any other foreign country. Compare the medical benefits available to anyone in America, including illegal residents (minimum are those provided by American Law in Hospital Emergency Rooms)and compare all the benefits available to the children of illegal residents, whether they were born in America or not.
A local visual evidence is available at any In-& Out Burger restaurant. Compare the demographics between Burger King, MacDonald s, or any other fast food restaurant.
The only reason for the employee difference is compensation. Ask the employees at any In-& Out Burger how much they are paid and what the starting wage rate is.
Another reason for the employment of illegal residents is that they can be more easily managed and dominated than Americans. This is primarily because they are illegal, and can easily be replaced by other illegals.
I regard illegal residents as an “Artificial Labor Supply” and as such, they offer an alternative as a cost factor, that stifles ” Invention, Innovation, and Investment”.
Usually, no one invents anything there isn’t a financial market for, no one even thinks of anything there is no need for, and certainly no one invests in any product,system,concept,procedure,idea, etc,etc, that doesn’t make any financial sense or reward.
Why would even a Farmer consider making a long-term Million Dollar investment in an effective piece of equipment as long as there was an alternative that was short-term more financially advantageous? People have to feel that either they have to do something by law or necessity, or because it is to their financial advantage.
A perfect example of this theory is the way garbage and trash is now removed in at least Orange County California. Look at the trash removal trucks and design, that Rainbow Disposal now uses. They only have one employee per truck, and all he does is stop and start the truck as he drives. Minimum labor even though the former method and employees were probably illegal residents being paid the minimum wage and no benefits other than those required by law.
I believe certain American Laws have to be changed before the Immigration Policy can be changed.
Number One: Any child born in America, has to have at least one American Citizen.
Number Two: Any Immigration Policy shall not allow for any Family Reunification Benefit or Preferences.
Number Three: No Welfare Benefits will be provided for at least 10 years of legal residency.
Number Four: The Crime for illegal
Residency and anything pertaining to, or regarding Illegal Residency shall be classified as a Felony
Number Five: Any and all Assets and Finances, shall be seized of anyone found to in the United States illegally.
Number: The violation of any VISA policies shall be classified as a Felony.
Such Laws,Policies,and Provisions, should be required to be posted by every and any Agency of every Government in the United States, including the Postal Service.
Because of the cultures and practices of those currently illegally residing in the United States, for example Mexico and Mexicans, where 35% of the Mexican Economy is illegal (under the table) and where dishonesty and non-compliance of all laws is practiced, and where corruption is accepted and routinely practiced and tolerated, and where the Illegals are almost totally uneducated, the Illegal Residents from most Foreign Countries do not really believe in the laws of the United States, and especially because the way the existing laws are not enforced or prosecuted.
I believe the Illegal Residents think are laws are a joke.
Why else would anyone commit Criminal Trespass, Document Falsification, Identity, Theft, Perjury, Mail Fraud, and the list goes on and on.
I believe the primary reasons for any support by Hispanic Political Activists for any activity on the part of Illegal Residents is for political and clout purposes.
I am of the opinion that the only taxes any illegal residents pays are State Sales Taxes, not State Income Tax, and on the Federal, County,and City level, the same thing.
I believe by the use of Tax ID numbers, issued by the IRS, that false Income Tax Returns are submitted, primarily for the purposes of obtaining Earned Income Tax Credit payments. I believe false 1099 returns are submitted as evidence of income.
Every Illegal Resident only earns money, either under or over the table, that automatically qualify them as living in Poverty, and all that entails.
With an average of $10,000 per student per year educational expense, not including any Free Breakfast or Lunch programs, there is no way the Illegals provide a positive tax contribution.
What I find amazing is how many Illegal Residents are currently being deported under the present policy of only deporting serious criminals. I thought a Criminal wa a Criminal. If 300,000 to 400,000 are currently being deported, how many must there be?
I think the complexity of creating a new Immigration Program, is at least as complicated as any Peace Treaty ever written.
Good Luck
David A.Thorpe
Well I agree .. We don’t owe nothing to illegals they Are here because they want nobody force it to come here … They will take the few jobs that Americans need..