Sen. Harry Reid appears to be continuing with his plan to try and pass the comprehensive immigration bill before the 4th of July recess. This AP article illustrates the split in the labor camp over the new battle in the Senate:
Several unions see a real threat to American workers under the Senate bill because temporary foreign workers would for the first time be able to hold non-seasonal jobs.
Ana Avendano, an AFL-CIO attorney and director of its immigrant worker program, said that would give employers like Wal-Mart and owners of meatpacking and poultry plants a lower-wage source of year-round workers that could be exploited.
You would think that labor would be unanimous in their rejection of comprehensive immigration. The consensus is that the influx of illegal immigrants drives down labor rates and benefits. But balancing that is the service industry unions that have been would benefit from the newly legal workers.
The most hated provision in the bill seems to be about the temporary worker provision. Democrats have already tried to amend the bill to remove or severely limit it, but a comprehensive bill without temporary workers would lose support from the business-friendly side of the Senate.
It is now clear that it's not just conservative Republicans who have serious doubts about the senate agenda. With congressional approval down to record low levels, you would hope that someone in the Senate is listening.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Everytime you turn around there is another provision of this bill that is anti American that surfaces; this time it is to allow temporary non seasonal labor. I am glad the black movement is going to have a march on June 23 in LA. Others should be doing the same.
Does everyone know that while illegals who decided to take out citizenship have to pay their back taxes, the ones who decided not to become Americans, do not have to pay their back taxes?
cdnbirch at 7:05PM on Jun 21st 2007
2. I'm almost ready to give the Presidents immigration plan a trial period. Questions remain:
Would border enforcement stem the influx to a manageable rate?
Would the current illegals opt for citizenship even with all the penalties, or just keep doing what they're doing?
Would companies employing illegals encourage or discourage their employees becoming legal?
Why do we need year round temporary guest workers?
Steve Bonomo at 3:17PM on Jun 23rd 2007
3. We need to get rid of bilingual education in the taxpayers' financed public school systems. We also need to eliminate those bilingual phone-based business transactions or customer service/call centers. The US and Canada are both parts of Anglo America, we do not live in Latin America. The availability of Spanish in all manners of life is pandering of the highest degree and is an affront to every American whose ancestral tongue was not English. Anyone who wants to be in the US must learn English and English must be the ONLY official language, period.
Stuart at 5:43PM on Jun 23rd 2007