Would Illegal Immigrants Register for Guest Worker Visas?
They might if they believed that they wouldn't regret it
later.
When all the politicians talk about immigration reform, are they
really planning or even wanting to do something new? It helps
the economy and many businesses to have workers who earn very
low wages. It would in turn, hurt the economy to lose all these
workers.
The House plan to build a wall on the border probably won't pass
in the Senate. But they might approve President Bush's plan to
have everyone register for guest worker visas. This plan wants
them to work here for two or three years and then leave, which
sounds fine until we realize people might not want to leave.
This plan would make their work lives safer and better for those
two or three years, but once they are making better money than
they were before and have a better life than they had before,
what will they do? Give it all up to go back to the problems and
poverty they left? I doubt it.
If everyone has to register, these people must be given a good
reason to do it and not fear that they will regret it. They have
to be shown that there are many advantages if they were working
here legally:
~ The money they pay to people who smuggle
them in would be saved.
~ They wouldn't be walking across
a desert and be injured or die.
~ They wouldn't be breaking
the law every day just by being here.
~ They wouldn't live
in fear every day that they will be caught.
~ They wouldn't
be exploited by unscrupulous employers and landlords who know
they won't complain about their treatment.
~ If these
people were registered workers, many of them would be able to go
home to visit families they left a long time ago and haven't
seen since. Once they got here, they became trapped on this side
of the border, never able to visit their families because they
feared being caught at the border when they came back in.
If a plan is enacted to have illegal immigrants register,
perhaps a small part of their wages could be deducted and put
into an escrow account to be given back to them when they leave
permanently. This money might be enough for them to start a
small business at home and would help their family and also
their hometown. Some of them might take this money and go home,
not all of these workers came here with the plan to stay.
If they didn't show up, deciding instead to stay illegally and
take their chances here, their money would be kept and they will
be deported if caught. Because these people were all working
with a registered ID number, they could be found more easily
than when they were using fake numbers.
If these people state that they want to apply for legal U.S.
status at that time, they would have to prove that they had
stayed out of trouble, learned English,
established themselves in their community, kept their jobs, paid
taxes and learned some of the things needed to become
naturalized Americans. Then some of that money could be returned
to them, possibly with strings attached as to how they could use
it. They can then apply for legal status, with no guarantee they
will be accepted, of course. But the chances they would be
accepted would be good if they had worked here that long with no
problems.
This might solve the problem of getting them to register if this
is the plan that the government enacts. It's too bad we can't
spend a fraction of the money we have spent rebuilding Iraq and
help the Mexican economy. If Mexico and other Latin American
countries had stronger economies, the people would probably stay
home. We would all benefit and have a stronger ally on our
southern border.