I find myself in complete agreement with Felipe Calderon, fomer president of Mexico:
Calderon said he believes U.S. lawmakers should consider adding provisions to proposed immigration legislation that would permit “temporary work in a massive way,†but without giving immigrants automatic citizenship.
“I don’t believe that most of the Mexican workers looking for a job in the United States are wanting to be American citizens,†Calderon told IBTimes. “They are looking for an opportunity to get economic benefits and actually thinking when they are leaving [Mexico] what will be the way in which they can go back to their own home.â€
Calderon argued American political groups opposed to undocmented immigration — the kind that have backed statutes to toughen immigration enforcement, as reported by Reuters — are prompting those already in the U.S. to stay and seek citizenship, even if that was not their initial goal.
“The American society, even the more conservative people, are getting exactly the contrary results that they were looking for,†he said. “In other words, anti-immigration laws are provoking millions of people living in the States that are unable to go back to their own countries. And they start to think, ‘Well if I need to stay here, it is better to do that all the way.’â€
As additional support for this view, consider that the majority of those eligible for U. S. citizenship under the 1986 immigration reform act never sought citizenship. We need a policy that fits the conditions on the ground rather than one that’s tuned for the imaginings of a few activists who, coincidentally, might achieve political power through the policies they’re promoting.
Any guest worker program brings up a whole lot of questions for me:
Is unemployment so low that we need to be bringing in guest workers, or does it just depress wages?
Is having people work here, and then ship as much money as they can back to their country of origin, rather than spending/investing it here, actually good for our country?
When guest workers have children in the US, do we then grant the parents permanent status, or do we break up families?
Is a legal underclass a good idea? (This may be better than the current, illegal underclass)
Just about everything you’ve mentioned is already happening and that won’t change with “comprehensive immigration reform”, at least as that phrase seems to be understood in Washington. As I have previously written here, IMO the policy best-suited to conditions on the ground is to greatly expand the number of work visas for which Mexican workers are eligible and combine that with serious workplace enforcement.
Agree with this. Businesses, and private citizens of that matter, can pay illegals much less. Make these people legal and they need to pay them over the table rather than under. They are already coming anyway, and making it harder for them to leave means we are getting more staying permanently.
Steve
I am missing something. I know people who’ve been deported and in Mexico in a matter of days from being picked-up by Immigration. How can an illegal immigrant from Mexico not return to Mexico? Are we entering a world where illegal immigrant’s perceptions of American policy and law are different from American policy and law?
I think that what’s being said is that the cost of leaving and then returning is pretty high.
So, we need more porous borders, and we won’t have an illegal immigration problem?
Population movement has both push and pull factors, as well as transportation costs. I don’t see how any policy is worth being described as a policy if the cost of coming into the country is zero. I would like to discourage U.S. employers from hiring illegals, to reduce the pull. I would like U.S. foreign/economic policy to reflect the fact that a strong Mexican economy is good for the U.S. And I would like Calderon and his ilk to take responsibility for their own stupid policies that pushed their young into another country to make a living.
No, we compromise and we compromise in a way that everyone gets what they say they want but nobody gets what they may silently want.
The number of work visas allotted to Mexicans is presently ridiculously small. Something like 14,000 IIRC. We increase that to whatever level the agricultural or other industries say they need, possibly as much as one hundredfold. Then we have strict workplace enforcement guaranteeing that part of the policy is adhered to.
Those with work visas are “brought out of the shadows” but not given a path to citizenship because as Pres. Calderon states, most don’t want U. S. citizenship. Whether those possessing visas are deemed to be “under U. S. control” is a matter for negotiation.
Mexicans working legally in the U. S. can go back and forth, visiting relatives, even commuting. Those not planning to work legally are blocked from the U. S. by the workplace enforcement measures.
Seems very weak on the idea of incentives. Mexicans are currently incentivized to travel to the U.S. to work. An expanded works visa program doesn’t change that incentive. It creates a new incentive that will attract other workers. To say that “path to citizenship” is irrelevant to the reality of why Mexicans have been coming to America doesn’t mean that a new program without “path to citizenship changes the pre-existing dynamics. Why do we not get the same illegal immigrants, plus more guest workers?
It should be coupled with serious workplace enforcement.
PD- People trying to sneak back into Mexico get caught just like those trying to sneak out. Both cases result in an extended stay in a detention facility, or jail. Cant find original paper, but link goes to a brief summation by Massey.
https://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2012/04/25/pages/5761/index.xml?page=3&
Steve
The agricultural jobs are temporary and seasonal. Americans tend to prefer working year round and having a permanent residence. These visas should be geared towards the agricultural cycle. They would be good for 6 months (or whatever), and there would be a seniority system with last cycles being first in line. There could be a fast track system for offseason visiting visas for weddings or birthday parties.
This is just an idea.
After failing at all things related to border security, the government has decided to not really bother anymore. Why believe that (a) the government will care about workplace enforcement or (b) will be capable of doing the job effectively?
There are a minimum of twelve million illegals here now (a number that has remained suspiciously constant for at least ten years now), and even though I can find a few dozen outside of any Home Depot or Lowe’s early in the morning, the US Federal government remains incapable of finding any of them, despite hundreds of billions spent on law enforcement & reading my email.
The elites want tens of millions of peasants from the Third World because it profits them and crushes everybody else. That won’t change until we get a new elite, and THAT won’t happen while the current batch is still breathing.
All those workers aren’t seasonal ag workers. There hasn’t been a roof put on a house in this state by a contractor with an entirely legal, or even mostly legal, crew in almost twenty years. And we’ve put up a lot of new houses, and reroofed a lot of old ones, in that time frame.