Friday, March 31, 2006

For a change, the President is right.

There are those who believe that I think that everything George W. Bush does is wrong.

In fact, one poster (dorsano) pointed out something he has done which is right. Today, the President reiterated his call for a guest worker program.

CANCUN, Mexico (CNN) -- U.S. President Bush is pushing a program to allow more immigrants to work in the United States as he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada wrap up a two-day summit in Cancun, Mexico, on Friday...

Bush emphasized that the debate over immigration needed "to bring dignity to America, recognizing that America is a nation of immigrants."

"There are people in our country doing work that Americans will not do**, and those people ought to be given a chance to have a tamper-proof card that enables them to work in our country legally for a period of time," Bush said.

Such a guest-worker program, Bush said, "will help us rid the society on the border of these coyotes who smuggle people in the back of 18-wheelers. I believe it'll help get rid of the document forgers. I believe it'll help people on both sides of our border respect the laws of our border and enforce our borders."


He is right, on almost all of this, and even where he is wrong his plan makes sense anyway. Leaving aside the implicit admission that his 2002 decision to allow Mexican rigs to operate anywhere in the United States without inspection has benefitted the smugglers, he is right that when people can get a guest worker card and enter legally, they won't have to pay coyotes a lot of money and risk their lives to come. And let's face it, as long as there is work here, they will come anyway, and the President's proposal has two big benefits: 1) it allows people (both immigrants and employers) to do what they are doing now anyway, but without having to hide anything, and 2) it allows us to find out who actually is living in America.

**-- he is wrong where he says, 'jobs Americans will not do.' There are Americans who will do many of these jobs, and in addition to that, in many cases undocumented immigrants have been working jobs like construction-- jobs that many Americans would do, if they could, and the only reason they are not is because the employer can pay less. But even here, the President's program will help. Once the workers are here legally and don't have to fear talking to the authorities, they will be free to report exploitive work situations.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WOW. I never thought I would see the day when you said something good about W.