Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Holes in worker scheme

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004 | 8:38 a.m.

A GOOD FATHER, barely able to provide for his family, isn't going to miss any opportunity to improve the situation affecting his wife and children. A Mexican father, looking north at the opportunities available for work and a better future for his family, will face physical and legal dangers to provide a better life.

Very fortunately, I was born in the United States because my grandfather came across the Canadian border and his father came from Ireland. Both left their native lands for greater opportunity in another country. My father did return to Canada to serve in the army during World War I and later returned to join the U.S. Army when our country entered that war. Because of this good luck I haven't had the problems faced by so many Hispanics who have come to our country to work and provide for their families.

They strive to survive and succeed under the constant shadow of the Immigration and Naturalization Service agents. Agents recently demonstrated their power by arresting a woman and, after a month in jail, dropping her off in the middle of the night in downtown Tijuana. Her legal husband and American children remained in Las Vegas to receive her phone call telling them where she had been dumped.

Even standing in long lines for a green card for employment purposes or applying to become a citizen has been used as a trap to catch and deport thousands of illegal immigrants, some who have become a vital part of our economy. Thousands more have found serving in the U.S. military forces as a way to show their love of country. Large numbers have been wounded or killed serving their adopted land. We have never heard of an INS agent showing up in a combat zone to deport an undocumented soldier, sailor or Marine.

There are an estimated 110,000 undocumented aliens in Nevada who probably had their spirits raised when President George W. Bush told the nation of his new guest worker plans. They shouldn't be overjoyed because he was stressing the opportunity for employers to seek workers for only three and six-year periods to fill jobs Americans refuse to do.

The president said, "Undocumented workers ... now here will be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the temporary worker program. Those who seek to join the program from abroad and have complied with our immigration laws will not have to pay any fee."

Will those undocumented workers already here applying for the temporary worker program be seized and deported? Can the INS use this as just one more trap?

The president's suggested program will certainly be cheered by the following statement: "All participants ... will be issued a temporary worker card that will allow them to travel back and forth between their home and the United States without fear of being denied re-entry into our country."

It's good that the president is looking for some changes to the present situation. Another paragraph does raise some flags: "All who participate in the temporary worker program must have a job or, if not living in the United States, a job offer. The legal status granted by this program will last three years and will be renewable, but it will have an end. Participants who do not remain employed, who do not follow the rules of the program or who break the law will not be eligible for continued participation and will be required to return to their home." What happens when you are fired?

Giving even more power to the employer over the workers at the bottom of the pay scale isn't the American way. Not long ago our Sun editorial board heard several cases of local immigrant workers being overworked, underpaid and with no health or welfare benefits. Unless Congress improves or adds on to the president's skeleton proposal this program can be disastrous. It shouldn't just become another source of cheap labor and used to drive down the wages of other unskilled workers.

Allow me to also suggest that despite what Mexican President Vicente Fox wants, before any new workers are brought into this country the immigrants already here should fill the jobs the president says need filling. The Los Angeles Times commented that, "Illegal immigrants fill many jobs in agriculture that Americans don't want to perform, but it's far from clear that a huge number of other jobs are unfilled. Business has shifted about 2.8 million manufacturing jobs abroad since 2000. The unemployment rate of black males between 16 and 24 is 52% and blacks have lost a disproportionate number of manufacturing jobs."

Congress has its work cut out for it to produce a strong immigration law and the president's guest worker proposal needs more than a little meat put on its bones.