Biggest challenge to immigration bill may be guest workers
BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ - MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- As immigration talks resume, the public debate has once again zeroed in on the merits of granting some type of so-called amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants. But another, more complicated dispute – where the sides are equally entrenched – is brewing behind the scenes between organized labor and business interests.
That debate, over how to manage future flows of legal immigration, particularly the size and scope of some kind of temporary worker program, could just as easily derail any type of immigration overhaul.
Farmers from California to North Carolina say they need more temporary workers to grow and pick crops. Increased border enforcement has made it harder to fill crucial agriculture jobs.
Plant managers in North Carolina and South Carolina, for example, have been forced to turn to prisons to man assembly lines at poultry plants.
Farmers need more hands in the orchards picking nuts and fruits in California’s Central Valley and grapes at vineyards in Washington state’s Tri-Cities area.
“The workers are not here,” said Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno, Calif.-based Nisei Farmers League.
“You got to have milkers. You don’t bring anyone out of the unemployment line to milk cows.”
But labor unions are wary of expanding guest-worker programs, insisting on a path to citizenship and worrying about what they say are abuses of the guest-worker programs and unfair competition to American laborers.
Well, that's what the unions say. But you can't take their word for anything, not the way you can take a big landowner's word that he's got to have more cheap labor.
... Talks on developing comprehensive immigration legislation resumed this month after Latino voters overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama for another term.
Republican leaders, mindful of the electorate’s demographic changes, now say they’re willing to discuss some type of path to legalization for some of the estimated 11 million people who are living in the United States illegally. But in return, they say, border security must be improved and Democrats have to stand up to unions and support an expanded guest-worker program, including some non-agriculture jobs, in order to prevent future waves of mass illegal immigration.
Some fear that a path to legal status without an accompanying worker program would lure more undocumented immigrants into the United States.
“There is so much agreement on border security, employment verification,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told McClatchy. “It breaks down on the number of guest workers. Unions hate that, but we have to have it."
So, what you're saying, Lindsey, is that the way to prevent the luring of more undocumented immigrants into the United States is to document them?
66 comments:
Well, the current farm guest worker program they can changed where they are not required to have to had to give them romm and board. What's wrong with using prisoners. The Republicans are big fools, hispanics are generally to the left on gun control, foreign policy and economics of whites and to the left of whites 50 years and older on the social issues.
Lindsey Graham also probably believes that the way to stop rape is to push the victims to consent.
The amensty will lose because Republicans will pushed guest worker programs while the Democratics will opposed since labor unions are oppossed. Two more failed amensties and a lot of illlegals will moved up-yeah. Only the dreamers and illegals that have been here for 20 years or so will be interested if 2 failed amensties will not make it under OBama's Presidently.
Off topic blast from the past:
Hazaras Hustle to Head of Class in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/asia/04hazaras.html?pagewanted=all
It's not clear whether anyone has measured this, but it's possible that Hazaras descended from Genghis Khan's Golden Horde have higher average IQ's relative to the other ethnic groups, and this advantage is in the process of being converted into concrete gains via universal education.
The GOP establishment doesn't have to rub shoulders with filth like this: http://sfappeal.com/news/2012/11/family-of-fort-mason-shooting-victim-livid-at-alleged-accessorys-release-on-bail.php
The rest of us do.
Clearly the GOP establishment has chosen to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
cipher
"Plant managers in North Carolina and South Carolina, for example, have been forced to turn to prisons to man assembly lines at poultry plants."
If prisoners can do the work at poultry plants, that suggests that ex-cons could also find employment there... if it wasn't for the flood of illegals willing to do the jobs that Americans won't [sic] do.
So glad to see that Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) is out front when it comes to throwing his voters and constituents under the cheap-labor bus. Thanks!
Meanwhile, my Blue city's left-wing daily newspaper regularly runs heartstrings articles and editorials about those greedy top-hatted employers who won't give rehabilitated felons a chance.
One might think that the elite's cognitive dissonance could only rise to a certain level. But one would be wrong.
"But labor unions are wary of expanding guest-worker programs, insisting on a path to citizenship and worrying about what they say are abuses of the guest-worker programs and unfair competition to American laborers."
So millions of new citizens is "fair" competition for American workers?
When I think of elected traitors like Lindsey Graham it reminds me of the comment Casper Weinberger once said about the Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski. Only rather than being a "Russian General in a Polish Uniform", Graham and his ilk are more like Representatives from the Ag Lobby or US Chamber. All of this was very predictable. The whole shtick about needing to reach out to Latinos followed by Bush's historic 44%, blah, blah, blah... My only hope is that the Business Lobby's demands end up being the poison pills that ultimately kill the bill. What frightens me this time around is that Obama might just be desperate enough to accept amnesty with all the Republican demands similar to how he shoved ObamaCare down our throats. It is easier to beg for forgiveness than to seek permission.
The guy who wrote this has a tilde in his name. They guy who represents the Nisei has an -nh-, i.e., the Portuguese counterpart.
And the unions aren't telling the whole truth-- that if these "guest workers" were allowed to vote, the unions would give them their full support. That's a bigger betrayal than the Republicans'.
What's wrong with using prisoners. --anon.
What's wrong with using machines? (Or question marks, for that matter? Mr. ORDOÑEZ can certainly spare a few extras-- ¡¡just turn them upside-down!!
They've been using the same low number of illegals for the past ten years as if nothing has changed. The number they used to bandy about was 12 million; now it's 11 million. Illegals have been coming in every single day in large numbers, particularly in the past 10-15 years. Just walk around, they're everywhere. Neighborhoods that were white have changed over to being predominately Mexican; public school systems are full of illegal and anchor children, in many areas being the largest group; Mexicans are showing up in areas where they were previously unknown; illegals march by the thousands, advertising their status and daring anyone to do anything about it; it goes on. Of course, having cities such as this one declare themselves to be a 'sanctuary city' just exacerbates the problem. How can an honest discussion even take place when it starts out with a lie?
"You've got to have milkers, not anyone from the unemployment lince can milk a cow".
Strangely enough, I've been troubled by the strange thought that for the past 80 years (in the USA at least), milking machines have exclusively milked cows in commercial dairies, and all the dairyman does is to wipe down the udder and attach the cups to the teats.I doubt if any mosern commercial dairy worker could even begin to milk a cow the old fashioned time honored way.
Some of America's highest unemployment rates are found amongst the immigrant Mexican population dwelling in the country towns of California's farming region.
It should now be possible to estimate approximately how many people will immigrate to the US over the next decade and therefore how many years before the Republican Party can no longer win any elections.
The way things are here in Iowa from first-hand experience: Local farmers are already hiring guys with 35 years experience in computer programming to pick at an effective wage of $3/hour by not paying by the hour. They have so many Iowas (real Iowans) volunteering at those compensation rates that they have to turn people away.
Note this indicates what is going on in the H-1b sector as well as the low skill sector:
"Skilled labor" immigration is so dominated by ethnic nepotism that US citizen (real US citizen) experienced computer programmers are accepting wages that are nearing the point that it will keep out Mexicans. Mexicans, however, enjoy wages that are higher than most of the world, so we have
Forget the statistics put out by the government or CIS or anyone else. The reality is that India has taken over the Fortune 1000 and government IT hiring positions, imposed a brain-damaged programming language "Java", that requires armies of programmers to do simple tasks, and uses that as an excuse to import more "programmers" from India. As long as ethnic nepotism can mine the US's Fortune 1000 (and government bureaucracies), the flow of immigrants will keep coming and IT wages will not decline substantially. However, when really hard problems have to be solved as a result of this ethnic nepotism, they will not hesitate to "outsource" work to India rather than doing what US farmers are doing: Avoid minimum wage laws by avoiding hourly pay agreements.
This may slow the H-1b immigration flood somewhat. Also the already low $3/hour effective labor rates on the farms for domestic labor leaves "only" a few billion people in the world who want to immigrate to the US over the next 10 years.
If the Indian IT authorities in the US are "wise", they'll slow their mining operation and do more outsourcing because even with "only" a few billion people wanting, and being allowed, to find "willing employers" in the US, there is every likelihood that they will be among the targets of a blood-bath. They need to be seriously considering the logistical nightmare of repatriating their people and, of course, the gold.
...hispanics are generally to the left on gun control...
You hardly have to be leftist to support gun control for Hispanics. As with blacks, you just have to know some.
To paraphrase Lincoln, la Segunda Enmienda is of the gringos, for the gringos, by the gringos.
Ronald Reagan, in his disatrous 1986 'amnesty' (which is, in fact, the genesis of the current racial/demographic pickle that has essentially built in a permanent Democrat majority), inserted a now mostly long-forgotten clause in his bill that supposedly traded 'tighter immigation enforcement' in exchange for the 'amnesty'.
Never heard a peep about this mythological 'enforcement' again.
The Guestman (Reagan was GE's TV host), conned the great American public yet again.
but it's possible that Hazaras descended from Genghis Khan's Golden Horde have higher average IQ's relative to the other ethnic groups
It would be the Red Horde, not Golden.
what the GOP can learn from hong kong's experience
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Protest-Hong-Kong-against-afpsg-2941544544.html?x=0
and one year later...
http://hongkongnews.com.hk/helpers-lose-appeal-on-residency-battle/
Comprehensive immigration reform is a compromise between the wants of the Democrats and the wants of the Republicans. Democrats want amnesty while Republicans want guest workers.
Republicans are saying to Democrats, "Let us have our guest workers and we'll let you have your amnesty."
Then they lie to their voters, "We are doing this for the Hispanic vote."
California Central Valley has the highest unemployment in the US plus some of the highest poverty rates, even Joel Konkin who likes legal and illegal immirgants a lot mentions this.
Well, its like the exile poll of prop 30 that shown the hispanics only supporting the measure at 53, that poll was from back east not California and was getting results from Kern County not Los Angeles. Los Angeles supported prop 30 at 60 percent and since whites in California in most places except the bay area supported the measure less than minorites probably hispanic support for prop 30 was around 60 percent since more MExicans can vote in La since at least 350,000 were legalized under Reagan and their children as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnu6yZKo7u8&feature=related
When did black friday become a sporting event? I don't recall stuff like this long ago.
Maybe this policy should be called 'desperate impact', but sadly, it won't have any impact on the political outcome.
There are two ways to lose. By fighting to the end and being crushed totally--like so many kingdoms overrun by Mongols--or by surrendering and being allowed to survive as a junior partner.
So, I don't think the GOP is doing this to WIN--GOP elites know they are lost for good nationally--but to survive as a junior partner of the Democrats. Thus, instead of being totally crushed, GOP will be given a place at the table. Even if GOP cannot win, it will get something.
Survive as a toady than die as a warrior. The new logo of the GOP should be a big toad.
Any suggestions on what white conservatives and rightists can do OUTSIDE the GOP to fight for their interests?
I think we should know from the BUSH II yrs that a GOP presidency doesn't do us much good--except in the very important area of SC justices.
If we compare Clinton vs Bush II, the former proved to be more conservative: welfare reform, locking up criminals, etc.
Of course, Clinton was forced to move to the 'right' because Congress was overrun by the GOP.
Democratic president and GOP congress may be a pretty good bargain.
I propose a different kind if "guest" worker: How about we take people off of welfare and EBT cards and have them fill in these jobs. It can be viewed as an introduction to productive labor--a sort of "work in".
(Oh, and the unions will just unionize them, and they will willy-nilly become voters.)
the GOP (and the Nation) is committing suicide.
There is no way to win this sort of showing them the door.
I gaurentee that if the GOP wa seen as the force for kicking these poeple out of the nation they would be the majority party for a generation.
The Stupid Party indeed.
The RINOS are worse for the country then the Democrats.
This is a few years old, but just shows some of the internal pressure faced on native employment. This being the higher end of the workforce, to compliment the low end pressures referred to in this blog post.
They could have done without the AC/DC soundtrack though, since it takes away from the seriousness of the video.
I feel like Roman citizens must have as they watched their once great empire crumble under its government's own weight. Our politicians are a lot like theirs. And getting out voted by illegal aliens and dead citizens was no fun, as the electorate decided to double down on losing policies and extend the Obama recession for four more years. Or will it be the Obama depression?
"Plant managers in North Carolina and South Carolina, for example, have been forced to turn to prisons to man assembly lines at poultry plants."
I predict we will someday see news copy like this: "Business has been so bad that, some business owners have said they have been forced to sell drugs and pimp-out their daughters to make ends meet."
Why don't these chicken-plant owners pay a decent enough wage so that some American citizen could take the job, instead of resorting to the quasi-slave labor supplied by felons. But then Chicken McNuggets would have to be removed from the dollar-menu.
I thought that South Carolina was in the bible-belt. Don't they realize that Lindsey Graham is a little light in the loafers? Why do they continue to re-elect this puffy little homo?
Here's a list of Senate telephone numbers. You can find your congressman's here.
Add your senators' and representative's numbers to your cell phone. Call each of their offices. Email them, too. Be firm but polite. Encourage like-minded friends to do the same. This shit needs to be headed off before it starts to gain any momentum.
"What frightens me this time around is that Obama might just be desperate enough to accept amnesty with all the Republican demands."
Yeah, don't throw Democrats into the Briar Patch!
Democrats get amnesty for current illegals plus lots more "guest" workers who will stay and breed future Democrat-voting citizens, and impoverish more working class Americans, increasing the demands for the welfare state.
What's not for Democrats to love?
The whole thing is just stomach-turning.
Once all the illegals have been made Americans, who will do the jobs that Americans "won't do?"
America is done, over, finished. It isn't a country...just a set of agencies.
So, it seems like there is this set of employers that really only want employees who have no rights and no choices and are easily silenced if they complain. Illegals or prisoners or guest workers--any of those are fine. But not citizens, and not immigrants who are here legally and so have legal rights and choices.
Now, I'm probably some kind of commie or something, because I have as much sympathy for these farmers, meat packing plants, etc., as I do for those poor old sugar and cotton plantation owners who had to start *paying* their employees.
If every employer that can only function given near-slave labor goes bankrupt, the world will be a better place.
The only borders which Lindsey Graham wants to protect are Israel's.
If Graham wants guest workers, how about letting some Iranian nuclear scientists into the US, so they occupy themselves with something other than building a bomb for their country? Heck, we can let them work on our bombs, and then look the other way when Israeli spies steal the secrets! Sounds like a win-win to me.
If joining hands with Obama for an illegal alien amnesty is not objectionable enough for South Carolina Republicans to get rid of this fool, then nothing is.
It doesn't speak well of the farmers, the piece doesn't come right out and say it - 'But I need /illegal/ workers who will work for sub-human wages!'. I'm surprised PC-ness doesn't squelch this whole argument, make farmers bad guys, like 'racists' - 'labor-exploiters'. 'Course I guess the media is shtum because part of the whole thing are those greatest objects of romantic pity, the 'undocumented'.
Coming from a rural area, all the dairy farms around here are moving towards completely robotic computerized milking operations which eliminate the need for milker, legal, illegal or guest workers. Of course, this is in Canada where a 300 cow farm is pretty large. I see from the comments that its impractical for 5,000 cow farms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hSBXAMapOw
What a hilarious "negotiation." Hi and Lo fighting each other over who gets to most ruthlessly hurt the Middle.
"Manuel Cunha," President of the "Nisei Farmers League?" Did some Mexican foreman marry the American-Japanese farmer's daughter a generation back? Or do White American organic-food buyers still fantasize about the celestially-harmonious perfectly-shaped veggies they think only Japanese-American truck farmers can produce?
And here you thought that Republicans couldn't Hispander better than the Dems.
"What's wrong with using prisoners. --anon."
Actually, the impact of using prison workers resembles in many ways the use of outsourcing manufacturing to sweatshops overseas. Both are paid a pittance, and that disincentivizes private industries trying to compete with regular American workers. In some ways, it is better since the money is still better since it employs Americans and the money and jobs are kept in the US, but it definitely still has a similar impact upon industries and individuals trying to compete.
So I guess we are destined to be in the following cycle: import poor guest workers to do the jobs Americans won't do. Those workers will eventually become citizens and have kids. Those kids will now no longer want to do the jobs Americans won't do. Import a new batch of poor guest workers, rinse and repeat until the USA has 500 million people.
For one thing, how about we get rid of guest-welfare-taker?
What are illegals?
"Uninvited guest workers"?
"Uninvited guest shirkers"?
What do we do about people like Obama's African aunt?
What conservatives need to do is stop relying only on numbers.
I think Stalin said one death is a tragedy but a million dead is a statistic.
Data such as '12 million illegals' may sound depressing/challenging, but it's just a number.
It's like just giving the number of black crime. Willie Horton ad was effective because it put the
(in)human face to black crime.
Similarly, there are so many stories of illegals having abused the system and done harm to Americans. So, their individual stories should be highlighted and made to be the FACE of illegal immigration.
Liberals do this all the time, showing only images of decent illegals who supposedly 'just wanna come here and work', and thus, many people think all these illegals are wonderful, socially conservative, and decent folks just looking for a better life.
Now, such people do exist,
but there is another side to illegal immigration, such as that of a total leech like Obama's aunt.
And such people should be singled out and portrayed as abusers of our American immigration system. And if conservatives don't wanna be charged with 'racism', mix the brown and black cases with some cases of illegal white immigrants from Europe.
"Coming from a rural area, all the dairy farms around here are moving towards completely robotic computerized milking operations which eliminate the need for milker, legal, illegal or guest workers."
I think robot cows would be even better.
The time of the white man is over.
We can move foraward with the rest of the country or keep living in the past.
Don't you know that since Mexico is set to become the next Hegemon we don't need to worry about these silly immigration mutterings?
"The time of the white man is over.
We can move foraward with the rest of the country or keep living in the past."
What does "move forward" even mean? Can you explain if this means anything specific, or is it just feel-good twaddle? It sound like it should mean something, but when you start to think about it it just sounds like one of those marxist slogans, "Forward, comrades!"
So how do we start pushing back against this or is are all the HBD blogs too busy dooming the future instead of trying to organize something with the people who stop in?
Seriously you guys are always moaning about how no one listens to you, well here's a chance to crystalize an opposition to Conservative Inc.
I told you. Obama winning means he gets what he wants. You wanted the GOP to stand up? They had to win. They lost. So they're making deals.
America is over. It just is. Whites are now a discriminated, third class minority.
Look at the comment about IT (which is spot on btw). White women are not in IT, and find that situation "good." Because it pushes down the nerdy White guy, whom they loathe above all else.
If mass immigration consisted of sexy Asian babes as teachers, nurses, NGO-ites, welfare ladies, HR people, and the other female paper pushing, you'd see a different tune.
"Manuel Cunha" is a Galaico-Duriense name, so, his ancesters came from Portugal or Galiza. But he certainly don´t arrive via Mexico; there had become "Cuña", according the Castillian version. And most Portuguese in California arrive in XIX century. In fact, they are there since the beggining: Cabrilho was Portugese.
"Forget the statistics put out by the government or CIS or anyone else. The reality is that India has taken over the Fortune 1000 and government IT hiring positions..."
This is true, at least in a number of large segments. For instance, in some parts of Silicon Valley the ethnic nepotism in large company's engineering deparments is surreal. I'm not exactly sure how this came about, I blame AA/EEOC regs and the desire of management to protect themselves, so they turned over engineering to Indian IT VPs with the wink-and-nod to hire as many non-whites as possible. Of course, it didn't hurt at all that they were expected to do it as cheap as possible, at rates US citizens would not take.
"Look at the comment about IT (which is spot on btw). White women are not in IT, and find that situation "good." Because it pushes down the nerdy White guy..."
Not completely true, the only whites in a lot of these IT and engineering departments are the pretty white admin-assistants. Some things never change, I guess.
Well, actually Grover Norquist's tax oath is losing popularity and Grover was one of the biggest open borders among Republicans but some of the moderate Republicans that didn't follow Grover are bad on immirgantion we are finally seeing Noquist's hold on the Republicans fading hopefully that good.
We have to prevent all these third-world people from being exploited, so lets all push for minimum wages around $20 per hour.
After all, we are a rich country, we can afford it.
Anon 1 said...
"Forget the statistics put out by the government or CIS or anyone else. The reality is that India has taken over the Fortune 1000 and government IT hiring positions..."
This is true, at least in a number of large segments. For instance, in some parts of Silicon Valley the ethnic nepotism in large company's engineering deparments is surreal.
True in some companies. Eg, Apple seems to be largely staffed by Indians.
I'm not exactly sure how this came about, I blame AA/EEOC regs and the desire of management to protect themselves, so they turned over engineering to Indian IT VPs with the wink-and-nod to hire as many non-whites as possible. Of course, it didn't hurt at all that they were expected to do it as cheap as possible, at rates US citizens would not take.
I am a white citizen but they hire me to do tech work at the high end of the pay scale.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
"Look at the comment about IT (which is spot on btw). White women are not in IT, and find that situation "good." Because it pushes down the nerdy White guy..."
Not completely true, the only whites in a lot of these IT and engineering departments are the pretty white admin-assistants. Some things never change, I guess.
Also, not completely true. I have worked in a number of Silly Valley tech firms where there were plenty of white software engineers, and they were male.
Females tend to gravitate to HR, admin or QA. They tend to be thin on the ground in hard engineering areas, and when they do exist, they tend to be East Asian or Indian, and even then tend to work in sustaining rather than developing new functionality.
"Anonymous said...
The time of the white man is over.
We can move foraward with the rest of the country or keep living in the past."
Yes, forward Comrades! Forward to the glorious bright future in which YOU do not exist.
You go forward into oblivion. I'll stay back.
"I told you. Obama winning means he gets what he wants. You wanted the GOP to stand up? They had to win. They lost. So they're making deals."
Republicans didn't lose. They won over 200 seats in the house. They have power over the spending in this country, and they need to use it.
Us real Americans are taking this country back, with or without the Republicans. Either they are with us or against us.
"The time of the white man is over. We can move foraward with the rest of the country or keep living in the past." --JSM (come again?)
Does this mean the time is over for "same-sex marriage", possibly the most twisted idea ever to come out of the skull of the white man? It's too barbaric even for the Africans!
"Foraward" ho!
Talking about the allegations that American chicken plants using 'prison' (ie forced labor, something that international jurisprudence generally eschews)labor, I am reminded of the frequent charge that one used to hear often repeated a few years ago (but seems to have evaporated lately), that Chinese manufacturers keep costs down by using prisoners as slave labor.
Let's see...
I'm sitting in the local Starbucks, where the employees are a 25-year old white single mother covered with tattoos (the asst. manager), a very pleasant Venezuelan guy, and a young girl of indeterminate ethnic derivation who could pass as a villager in Dances With Wolves and doesn't speak.
Customers right now: the chubby white single mother nurse with her little adopted Asian girl, a 40ish white couple with their adopted black son, the white contractor who buys his three amigo workers coffee every morning and the two lesbians with their little boy.
Of course, this is Massachusetts. The America I grew up in is long gone.
Younger MExicans supported gay marraige more so than whites according to a pew hispanic poll and in MExican City there are civil unions and abortion is legal, the social issues Mexican is partially a myth.
Younger MExicans supported gay marraige more so than whites according to a pew hispanic poll and in MExican City there are civil unions and abortion is legal, the social issues Mexican is partially a myth.
No, it's entirely a myth. Mexicans don't give a damn about anything outside their own family. Thus, there is some truth to the "Mexican family values" meme.
On the right thank Barry Goldwater who was against e-verify and wanted guest worker programs. MR conservative when he first ran most illegal immirgants did farmwork and were not too much in the big cities a disher here and there in La but it was much smaller, so Republicans still cheeer Barry and Ronnie and boo Ike for being a Rino since Ike was only conservative on one important issue deporting illegal immirgants.
"Foraward" ho!
Vorvaerts!
Take manufactoing I remember alot of illegal immirgants doing simple assembly work 20 years ago in California, most of these jobs now require reading blue prints, using a computer for inventory, and various hand tools and the ability to speak english. The type of manufactoring they did 20 years ago in Los Angeles went to Mexico or China or is done by a robot. Most ads many white people can't even do since manufactoring seeems to advertize for enginnering since a lot of the low skilled stuff went overseas or is done by machines.
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