Sens. Cornyn, Kyl Prepare Massive Guestworker Plan

Today the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on immigration held another in a series of hearings on wide-ranging topics in preparation for the introduction of a comprehensive bill to reform U.S. Immigration reform policy. Immigration sub-committee John Cornyn (R-TX) and terrorism sub-committee chairman Jon Kyl (R-AZ), the principal architects of the bill they are jointly developing, were at today's hearing.

The witness list for today's hearing was remarkable for its extraordinary on-sidedness. The deck was stacked in favor of a massive and unlimited guestworker program. The topic of the hearing ostensibly was "Immigration and the economy". Leading off the hearing, deputy labor secretary Stephen Law proposed a wide-open foreign worker program, for every sector of the U.S. economy. He was joined in supporting this proposal by the other witnesses, including Tom Donohue president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Dan Griswold director of Trade Policy Studies at the CATO Institute, and Princeton sociology professor Douglass S. Massey.

The witnesses also told senators that illegal immigration would solve the social security problem. Assistant Secretary Law made the incredible observation that the use of h-1b guestworkers in the high-tech industry, proves there is continued job growth in the high-tech industry, completely ignoring the record high levels of under- and unemployment for U.S. high tech workers.

Professor Massey made the point that the best way to control illegal immigration and to ensure illegal aliens return home is to "demilitarize" the border. Elaborating on the need for a permanent foreign work force, Chamber president Donohue insisted that "We need workers up and down the daisy chain" meaning all sectors of the economy should have access to unlimited cheap foreign workers.

For his part, CATO's Griswold responded to a question about the tax burden of illegal aliens on local communities by claiming that illegal aliens pay more in taxes than they get in benefits. He went on to offer another gem, saying one of the main problems of the 1986 IRCA legislation was that it didn't liberalize legal immigration. (Meaning, unlimit it.)

While neither Chairmen Cornyn or Kyl endorsed the pro-mass immigration views expressed by some of the witnesses at today's hearing, middle and lower income American workers had better hang on to their hats. Because if the developing Cornyn-Kyl legislation contains provisions reflecting these views, just about every job, in every sector of the economy will be placed on the auction block for the lowest bidder.

-- Paul Egan, Government Relations Director for FAIR