over border interdiction.
It appears to me that (uncontrolled) immigrant labor fills a void that it perpetuates, low wages that make the jobs undesirable due to an oversupply of labor, the classic supply/demand relationship. All the current immigration policy of this country does is create a black market for labor, exploiting those who are here illegally, and driving down the wages and working conditions so for legal residents and immigrants the job is a step backward.
I feel that a well-regulated Guest Worker program will deal with illegal immigration by addressing demand (the employer). It would hopefully stop the exploitation of immigrants and end the flooding of the labor market due to uncontrolled immigration.
Just like the ‘war on drugs’, illegal immigration cannot be reduced by simply militarizing the border and locking up people. On the other hand, we have to do something to protect the ‘victims’ of this policy, the working people of this country who are citizens or here legally.
The key points of the program would be as follows:
- Hiring of guest workers by businesses would be coordinated through workforce development (unemployment) offices. These offices would maintain a set of procedures/surveys to verify a shortage of labor in a classification before guest workers could be hired.
- A wage rates system would have to be maintained to prevent low wages from being used as way to create a labor shortage.
- All labor laws, including minimum wage rates and social security payments, would be enforced for guest workers. After participation in the program over time, the guest worker would be eligible for a retirement SS annuity based on what they paid in.
- Severe penalties for those employers violating the above provisions.
- A worker certification system, also administered by workforce development, to take the burden of verifying an employees legal status off of the employer. If an employer takes the step to verify the employees status though this system, they will be held harmless in the event the employee is found to not have legal standing.
Some thoughts on immigration policy from John Sayles which sums up my feelings on this issue.
John Sayles
From:A People's Democratic Platform
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040802&s=forumThe Democratic platform should call for an end to the hypocrisy of our immigration policy. Our current policy, an enormously expensive cat-and-mouse game, most notably on our southern border, calls on the INS to enforce immigration laws that are openly expected to be ignored by countless US industries and private employers. Some sort of regulated guest-worker program is needed.
Once it is in place, if immigrants continue to enter the country illegally and can't find work, word will filter back and the numbers will decrease dramatically. While in our country, however, those guest workers need to be protected from exploitation--to be assured they will be paid for their work, that their working conditions will meet state and federal safety standards and that they will receive no less than the federally mandated minimum wage (which needs to be raised).
Employers would be required to withhold some percentage (perhaps the equivalent of federal taxes and Social Security) from wages to help defray the costs of the program. Penalties for hiring foreign workers outside of the program would be high enough (and sufficiently enforced) to end the black market in labor that is thriving now.
Protecting all workers in this country is an important first step toward the amendment or abolition of NAFTA and the protection of workers throughout the world.
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