• threaten homeland security
• grantamnesty for law-breakers,a step overwhelmingly opposed by the American public
• establish a back door immigration program
• threaten the jobs and wages of American workers.

The politicians pushing a guestworker amnesty know that Americans staunchly oppose amnesty, and so they shy away from calling it what it really is, instead cloaking it in terms like "earned legalization" or "normalization of status." They aredeliberately misleading the American public.

THEY SAYthat the overwhelming majority of people entering the country illegally pose no threat to our country and that if we allow them enter in a lawful manner, we will enhance our homeland security.

THE TRUTHis that there are an estimated 8-11 million illegal aliens in the United States, and it only took 19 to perpetrate the attacks of September 11.Our immigration system has become overburdened and unmanageable due to mass illegal immigration.As a result, there is little reason to feel confident that, absent a massive infusion of new resources, which is highly unlikely given current fiscal realities, anything approaching thorough background checks can be conducted on applicants for a guestworker program.Even without the added burden of an amnesty, people like Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who masterminded the first World Trade Center bombing, and Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 attacks, managed to slip through the screening process.There is every reason to believe that adding new responsibilities to an overtaxed system will make us less safe.

No one has yet explained how the millions of applicants would be given security checks or whether that’s even remotely feasible, given an already overburdened immigration enforcement system. Immigration officials would have to deal with hundreds of thousands of more applicants a year, to say nothing of how we would verify eligibility for any of the eight million potential applicants already here illegally, particularly with many of them armed with false identity documents.When the immigration system can’t adequately perform its most essential mission, adding in the responsibility for security checks, tracking, and removal when necessary for millions of participants in a guestworker program will guarantee disaster.

THEY SAYthat the legislation is not an amnesty, but that guestworkers who participate in the program will be eligible for permanent resident status.

THE TRUTHis that the proposal would be an amnesty with an “apprenticeship” provision.Illegal aliens who are already in the U.S. wouldbe eligible to apply.Thus, they would be excused for having violated our immigration laws in the first place, and then be rewarded again with permanent residency--thus making the law, in effect, a double amnesty.Calling it something else does not change the reality that this proposal is a massive amnesty program.

THEY SAYthe program will help regain control of the borders and stop illegal immigration.

THE TRUTHis that the proposaldoes nothing to discourage future illegal immigration or enforcement of our immigration laws, ensuring that any guestworker or illegal alien who wants to remain in the U.S. can and will.In fact, about one-third of illegal aliens in the country right now arrived on legal visas and simply never went home.In addition, it does nothing to strengthen border security to ensure that only guestworkers, and not terrorists, are being admitted.

THEY SAYthat spouses and children of illegal aliens may also be eligible to participate in the visa program.

THE TRUTHis that this would be an amnesty not only for those who qualify for this “guestworker” program, but a simultaneous amnesty for their dependents, whether or not they are workers.Aside from expanding the amnesty to include non-workers, it also grants a benefit to the dependents of illegal aliens that is not afforded to the families of other guestworkers who never violated the law.Moreover, it undermines the stated if flawed purpose of a guestworker program:that foreign workers come temporarily and then return home.Employers would be able to utilize a virtually limitless supply of guestworkers at low wages, while the expense for services like education and health care for dependent family members would have to be picked up by taxpayers.

THEY SAYthat an electronic job registry operated through the Department of Labor will allow employers to post jobs and American workers would have the first chance to apply.Moreover, the jobs would have to be offered again at the end of the three-year period, and that workers’ visas would be renewed only if no Americans are willing to take them.

THE TRUTHis that in the estimation of the General Accounting Office and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the provisions in existing guestworker programs that are intended to ensure that American workers get first crack at jobs have been a complete failure.Even if the political will existed to prevent employers from bypassing American workers in favor of foreign guestworkers which there doesn’t the Labor Department does not have the resources to monitor the hiring process.A federal government that managed to fine a grand total of 13 employers nationwide in 2002 for violating employer sanctions laws cannot be counted on to enforce the provisions of a guestworker program either.

THEY SAYthat BSIIA would be a market-driven program that will negate the reasons why employers hire illegal aliens.

THE TRUTHis that under BSIIA, there would not even be a prevailing wage requirement, meaning that employers will be able to offer wages far below what most Americans would be willing to accept, thereby creating an artificial need for guestworkers.In effect, the law would grant legal sanction to employers who want to hire workers at low wages and limited leverage.One of the primary purposes of our immigration laws is to prevent employers from undermining wages and working conditions of American workers.

THEY SAYthat the program would prevent abuse of foreign workers by affording them mobility and the ability to file grievances against abusive employers.

THE TRUTHis that the mobility of guestworkers would still be very limited and their ability to change jobs would depend on finding another employer who was willing to go through the procedure of posting a job and wading through the bureaucratic red tape.The primary interest of the workers would be to hold a job for six years in order to qualify for permanent residency.Moreover, at the end of the “apprenticeship” period, when the guestworker would be granted permanent residency and would gain bargaining power, there is no reason to expect that the employer would not seek another guestworker who is willing to work at below-market wages.

THEY SAYthat the program would prevent deaths along the border.

THE TRUTHis that U.S. immigration laws are not responsible for the deaths along the border it is the violation of our immigration laws that isresponsible.If there is any culpability on the part of the American government, it is in its failure to deter illegal immigration by aggressively enforcing laws that prohibit illegal aliens from working here or accessing public benefits.Sending a clear signal that illegal entry to the U.S. will not be rewarded would have the desired effect of dissuading people from placing their lives and safety into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.Besides, when the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) adopted a measure that demonstrably cut down the likelihood of border deaths by repatriating illegal alien crossers who were apprehended in Arizona to border towns in Texas the open borders lobby protested, charging that the program was unfair to illegal aliens.

THEY SAYthe program will provide workers when and while they’re needed.

THE TRUTHis that when the economy takes a downturn, there will be millions of guestworkers in the U.S. without a job, without a home, without health care, and with no intention of returning to their home countries.The guestworkers’ unemployment problems become the public’s burden.

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