Immigration policy
Immigration policy
By: Thomas Dick Cosgrove
Description: Illegal immigration need to be curbed
Topics:
Posted by editor Mon Apr 3, 2006 15:59:02 PDT
Viewed 470 times
0 responses 0 comments According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are now 11 million illegal immigrants in our country, an estimate many consider extremely low. It is somewhat ironic that corporate farmers in Southern California and Arizona are feeling the squeeze of a labor shortage in picking such crops as lettuce, strawberries, chiles and apples.
The huge number of illegal immigrants residing in those two states (estimated at two and a half million) brings to light the falsehood that America needs more Hispanic immigrants to help pick the crops. According to government estimates, the total U.S. agricultural workforce is only 1.6 million.
Larry Nelson, the mayor of Yuma, Ariz., an area especially hard-hit by the shortage of field hands, says that field work is hard and doesn’t pay well so illegal aliens are more inclined to work in construction and industry jobs where they displace American workers and cause wage stagnation or wage reduction.
The Bush administration is supporting the Ag Jobs Act, which in short gives temporary citizenship to the illegal aliens who agree to work at least 360 days in agriculture of a six-year span. When they are not in the fields, they can take any job that they can get. At the end of that time, they would obtain U.S. citizenship, including spouses and children.
Some older readers may remember the successful guest-worker program. It was called the Bracero Program. the Bracero Program did not offer citizenship. It required the guest worker to work only in agriculture and it stipulated that U.S. workers could not be displaced or their pay reduced by Mexican workers.
The Ag Jobs Act will not reduce illegal immigration. Any type of amnesty begets increased illegal immigration.
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