Sen. Kennedy has done some great things in his career, but this Senate Immigration package is a cut and paste that is now so flawed that there is something in it for just about anyone to hate. American workers?especially American construction workers?deserve better than what is being proposed under the comprehensive immigration reform package currently being rammed through the US Senate.
In a rush to get something, anything, passed to say they did, our US Senator Kennedy has been a disappointment because he has cut deals first with Sen. McCain and (now that McCain has backed away from him) with Sen. Kyl that ultimately do not help or protect either American workers or the immigrants that will continue to be exploited as cheap labor.
Reading through the bill, it is clear that especially in the section that offers up the Guest Worker program, this package paves the road to disaster and does not help either American workers or immigrant workers:
* The temporary guest worker provision, as contained in the bill, does not offer sufficient wage floor protections?opening the door even wider for exploitation of undocumented workers in the American construction industry ? which leads to an accelerated erosion of wages and benefit standards for the construction industry….under this weak bill in some states DoL (Anti-)Labor Secretary Chavez and conservative state leaders would set the wage scales…we already know what big business thinks are “fair” wages for immigrant workers…expect more of the same…ironically the unions are the only ones calling for fair wages for immigrant workers now!
* The legislation DOES NOT do enough to secure our nation?s borders; nor does it contain an effective and reliable employment verification system.
* Under this bill, the penalties and sanctions levied against those employers that violate our nation?s immigration laws remain embarrassingly weak. Until they set the penalties so high and the enforcement so vigilant on these greedy employers, immigrants will be lured by them for the hope of a job…low pay or not…you can’t blame the immigrants for wanting to get a job…these employers are the root of the problem…time to enforce the laws we have to stop them.
Rather than passed a flawed bill, why not take three steps back and put something together that will work…for American workers that are being thrown under the train and for immigrant workers who will continue to be exploited with this bill…without prevailing wages and/or wage floors for workers, American or immigrant, this bill undercuts our own industry standards and will ultimately hurt the economy.
who thinks that from what I’ve heard of it is that it is a good step over a major hurdle that will fundamentally help our immigration system, and believe the problems I’ve seen with it so far will be sorted out in revisions to the bill once we have a Dem in the White House and solid control in the Senate. That said, I am interested to read about it’s potential problems so I have a couple questions of clarification:
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How does it not respect wage floor protections? Will these temporary quest worker programs be different from traditional guest worker programs, other than they don’t have a path to pernament residency? Won’t the same wage laws that apply to workers who are citizens and pernament residents also apply to temporary guest workers? To me, the issue on this factor is the need for fair wages for all workers, including immigrants, which I believe we all agree on.
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You can’t do much on the enforcement end of physically securing the border from national security threats while the bulk of illegal immigration is dominated by economic refugees. Removing the caps and reducing the application fees for legal immigration are an important part that as far as I know is not effectively addressed in this bill, but it is helped somewhat by the guest worker program.
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This is of course still going to be a problem, but one that won’t be addressed in a bill we can get by Bush. However, the fact that people without legal status will have a way out of that situation where they can be taken advantage of through intimidation by gaining a legal visa to live and work here on temporary basis while they apply for pernament residency. Even if it doesn’t do much to discourage employers, it gives the people a chance to escape them.
Our nation?s immigration policy is broken. The number of undocumented and illegal immigrants in the United States is estimated to exceed 11.5 million, and that number is growing rapidly.
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However, the kennedy-McCain-Kyl Bill does not really recognize the relationship between the needs of the economy and the composition of the workforce immigrating to the US. US immigration policy needs to be overhauled and realistically aligned with future economic and workforce needs. This legislation does neither.
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The bill has some positive elements: authorization and funding for additional work-site agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security; increasing the fines, penalties and sanctions levied upon employers who violate our nation?s immigration law; and, a mandatory electronic work-eligibility verification system?which can effectively detect the use of fraudulent documents.
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The fines levied on greedy employers who exploit immigrant workers are no where near high enough to be a deterrent and, frankly, fines are only effective when the laws are enforced. We have similar fines now that are not enforced.
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The proposed temporary guest worker program, as proposed in the legislation, has a loophole the size of the Grand Canyon which will allow further exploitation of immigrant workers in the building and construction industry in particular, and will accelerate a further erosion of U.S. workers? economic standards.
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Should temporary guest workers be employed on construction jobs paying wages in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement, the Davis-Bacon Act, or the Service Contract Act, they are to receive those calculated wages.
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HOWEVER (the Devil is always in the HOWEVER), should temporary guest workers be employed on a construction project where none of the above applies, the wage calculation will be based upon published wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), including the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey – which historically has diluted actual local wage rates. If the BLS does not have applicable data, then the employer can set wages rates on data approved by the state workforce development agency, under regulations promulgated by the US Department of Labor.
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If the employer can set his own wage rates based on inaccurate data and complicity of folks like GOP/DOL’s Chavez…the immigrant workers have no chance…the wage floor will stay in the basement…and American workers having to compete with underpaid workers will be heading to the basement, too.
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I have to first admit I am very ignorant of labor issues, so I’m still not completely understanding (but that is probably my fault), but I do see why there are flaws you have concerns with.
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However, I had specifically commented and questioned parts of your original post and stil don’t think I understand those specific ares. The key to me of this bill is that the Z Visa allows undocumented workers who are stuck in situations where they are being taken advantage a way to get out to be able to get a temporary status to legally work and get to the back of the line for applying for pernament status. I haven’t seen anything in the flaws of the rest of the bill that makes things worse from the status quo, and would be worth risking losing the huge benefit of normalizing undocumented immigrants.
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So maybe my main question is: are the flaws you are talking about going to make things worse than they are now, or will just not improve things enough?