FAIR Letter to President Bush About His Guestworker Proposal
Dear Mr. President:
At this morning”s White House press conference, you were asked a question about your plan to reform U.S. immigration policy. In response to the question, you repeatedly made the point that your proposal entails allowing workers in other countries to enter or remain in the U.S. legally to fill “jobs that Americans will not do.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and millions of Americans throughout the nation are highly troubled by your policy proposal. First, your proposal both forgives and rewards businesses that have flagrantly violated laws against the hiring of illegal aliens with a novel approach to sustaining for them a never-ending supply of cheap foreign labor. Second, your proposal both forgives and rewards illegal aliens who have and continue to be in violation of our immigration laws by making your guestworker/amnesty program available to them.
The American public has a right to be clear about your intentions and policymakers in Congress deserve a degree of certainty about the consequences of adopting your policy proposal. Your position on this proposal could be much more clearly clarified if you would address the following questions publicly:
- You talked about “jobs that Americans will not do.” Could you please provide a comprehensive list of such jobs?
- You frequently talk about allowing the free market to work. Why not apply this principle to the jobs you claim “Americans will not do,” and allow the free market to bid up wages for American workers? Is upward mobility no longer a desirable objective for American workers?
- At this morning”s news conference, you spoke about the desire of people in Mexico and other countries to work in this country in order to put food on their families” tables. Would you please address the matter of millions of American families who used to do jobs in construction, meatpacking, janitorial services, restaurant and hotel work, and other trades who would like to put food on their families” tables?
- How do you propose to pay for the education of the children, the health care for the families and all the other services that the foreign workers who will do “the jobs Americans will not do” and their families will require?
- Mr. President, as you conceded in this morning”s press conference, the vetting process and background checks of cabinet appointees failed to uncover problems with your Homeland Security nominee. Can you assure the American public that the vetting process and background checks on the millions of illegal aliens who will be applying for legal residence under your program will receive a more comprehensive investigation of their backgrounds?
As you continue to discuss this policy proposal, Americans from all walks of life and policymakers in Congress would be well served if you provided clear answers to these questions.
Sincerely,
Dan Stein
President