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The system is working - but not for us |
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Bill Horne,
Wednesday, May 29th, 2007 |
Some people would have us believe that the immigration issue is liberal or conservative. But, folks, it is all about the money. It doesn't make a difference what you and I might want. The large companies want cheap labor and that is what they get - whether we like it or not.
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Folks, let's take a closer look at immigration. From the very beginning of our country, immigration has been an issue. Thomas Jefferson addressed immigration seriously in 1801 and it has risen to the top of our hot-button list periodically ever since.
It won't be necessary to go all the way back to Jefferson, but it is important to go back to 1986 and President Reagan. Reagan and a bipartisan task force made a gallant effort to solve the immigration situation with the "Immigration Reform Act of 1986." But there were big holes purposely left in the act. These holes are big enough to drive bus loads of immigrants through.
The 2006 bill, titled the "Comprehensive Reform Act of 2006" is pretty much just a warmed over version of Reagan's 1986 bill. The difference being that Reagan had the guts and decency to call things what they really were. The term amnesty was used, not hidden in legal jargon, and guest workers were called guest workers.
Some people would have us believe that the immigration issue is liberal or conservative. But, folks, it is all about the money. It doesn't make a difference what you and I might want. The large companies want cheap labor and that is what they get - whether we like it or not.
We have gotten ourselves into this situation because companies want cheap labor and so we write laws and pass bills that provide what companies want. We are told that we Americans are lazy and won't do hard work and that is why we must import workers. This is pure propaganda.
American citizens are the hardest workers in the world. We are the most productive. No one else is even close. We work the most hours, both individually and per family, we have the highest percent of total population working of any country in the world. Telling us differently is purely an attempt at brainwashing.
Now that we have cleared the air, let's look at the holes in the laws that aid and protect large employers. Most people are aware that an employer is required to have copies of two forms of identification on file for each employee.
What many people aren't aware of is that these documents need not be checked for authenticity. Because an employer does not need to check to see if a person's identification papers are legitimate, the door is wide open for workers from anywhere to come here for work. Employees can be American citizens - or not.
Here is the big concession to large companies, which the Reagan bill of 1986 and the Bush bill of 2006 provide. Employers can recruit employees from anywhere and bring them to the U.S. to work. These people are called guest workers.
If you would like to check this yourself, just ask your Internet search engine (Yahoo, for example) to find the "H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs."
Corporations don't need to show that they cannot find labor among our citizens. All they have to do is state that they "anticipate that they 'might' have a labor shortage." And, they don't even have to find the workers themselves. There are so-called recruiters that the workers pay to hook them up with employers.
Someone said, and I cannot remember who, that "There is nothing more permanent than a temporary foreign worker program."
So, what happens to the workers who are brought here legally by large corporations?
First, let's describe the two programs, H-2A and H-2B. H-2A is for agriculture workers and it has a lot of rules that employers are supposed to follow. When I look at the complaints and court cases, I wonder if anyone is following any of the rules.
The H-2B program is for non-agriculture jobs. And this program really doesn't have any rules. All that companies need do is bring the workers in and put them to work.
Oh, yes, for you professionals out there, you might want to check out H-1A, H-1B, and H-1C visas.
These workers come from all over the world, but mostly from Mexico and Central America.
And, they are perfectly legal.
Recruiters go into small, poor towns and offer the people the chance to work in the United States. Because these people have little or no money, and cannot afford the transportation cost to the U.S. or the recruiter's fee, the recruiters lend it to them. The interest can be as high as 20 percent per month.
It is usually only the man that comes to our country, but the wife has to sign the loan also. This is to make sure that the husband does not skip out.
The first thing that can happen, as soon as they report to work, is that all of their papers are taken from them. Supposedly, this is to make sure that they don't leave the job when they find out what the actual wages are. Their wages are usually less than half of what was promised and that there is little or no food or shelter as promised.
So, when the job ends and the workers have no papers - or, even if their papers are returned to them - they must stay here in the U.S. because they do not have their loan repaid.
Legal guest workers are systematically cheated and there is little or nothing that they can do.
It will do us no good to put up walls, or place an army along our borders, or direct our energy toward the workers. Trying to punish legal or undocumented workers, who are in most cases good Christians, for trying to make a living will not work.
If we really want to fix this problem, all we need to do is to make it a crime with a prison term for the hiring manager and the CEO of the company who employs these people. This will end the jobs and there will be no more immigrants.
But no White House or court system will help workers - whoever they are. Our whole system is aimed at protecting and assisting large companies.
--Bill Horne is a professor of economics at Southern State Community College and a columnist for The Times-Gazette. |
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