HispanicVista Columnists
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By
Raoul Lowery Contreras - April 30, 2009
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Memo to President Obama
- By Raoul Lowery Contreras
Subject: Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Mr. President:
Some in your administration have indicated that you will tackle the question of Immigration reform this year.
If they are right, may I make some suggestions?
The strategies and details of the combined Bush, Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, then Senator Arlen Spector were on point and need to be clarified somewhat then pushed by your Administration with the Democratic Congress.
Specifically, the emphasis should be on eliminating the illegal alien border crossings by expanding current border crossing and employment laws. As many as a million plus illegal border crossers come into the USA a year with approximately 300,000 to 400,000 staying on to become part of the growing number of illegally present people. There may be 12-13 million illegally present people here which, of course contradicts people like Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist who claims 30-million illegals are here today.
The problem of those here already is minor compared to the constant influx of illegals.
Both problems can be solved easily enough by simply expanding current guest worker programs that President Bush tried to do at the end of his second term.
Example:
If such a system was organized here, a person would
file an application at any American Consulate in
Employers could file a request for a job(s) to be filed on the Internet at a special to be set up web site. The request would outline job description (s), pay and benefits, medical certifications if necessary. The employers could request specific people. This alone would solve the problem of those already here illegally and working.
To be clear, sir, every employer in the country could file jobs on the web site. In their application they would have to certify that they advertised the job (s) in newspapers and through state employment offices. Pay would have to be state or federal minimum wages whichever is higher. Hours of work would have to conform to state and federal laws. Once hired, the employee could work as long as the job requires or he/she could apply for other jobs through the program. The actual permit would allow him to travel home and back without limit or problems. That alone would solve most of the illegal alien problem, sir.
Mr. President, this plan would solve the double barreled problem of those coming and those already here.
Mr. President, there are barriers to implementing this program. Your Union support is against such a program. So are Senators and Representatives who owe their very offices to organized labor. Joining them are the House and Senate racist block.
Example: The Teamsters have torpedoed our obligations
to
Mr. President you backed a premature end to a Bush
pilot Mexican trucking program. That end was insisted upon by the Teamsters
Union and your support of that effort sparked a nascent trade war with
Mr. President, you should have no problem in squelching
racist efforts to block Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Those
efforts have been led in the past by Senator Dorgan of
Neither you nor Congress are necessary to fix the economy, it has always fixed itself. Immigration reform, however, requires action and legislation.
If you cannot override the Congressional racist block and union reactionaries on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, sir, you must resign your post and take Joe Biden with you. He has never been an immigration reform champion.
- Your record in the Senate reflected Organized Labor’s wishes and dictates. Break that bond, Mr. President, for if you don’t there will be no Immigration Reform and the national Hispanic constituency will turn its back on you in 2012.
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- Contreras’ book, THE ILLEGAL ALIEN: A DAGGER INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA?? is available at www.amazon.com
His
speaking schedule is available by e-mailing him at
sdraoul@att.net