Republicans are against raising the minimum wage and unionization. No need to address those low-paying jobs in the agriculture, hospitality, and construction industries, because those employees are plentiful and happy to be working. Sure, because many are undocumented workers and want to stay beneath the radar, and conditions in their native countries are what drove them across our border to begin with. If the border was actually shut down, and all the illegals deported, who’d do those jobs?
@johnldeboer One reason food prices are going up is lack of workers in the fields. :(
I DO care that folks are documented though to prevent folks on the no entry list (because they are terrorists, sex traffickers, drug dealers etc) from entering. But if we had freer access to come through with a background check wait we'd be better off. Something sensible.
@TrueBloodNet Yes, the work-permit program we have now is quite specific and would satisfy background checks, but it takes much too long to get approved. If it were liberalized in a way that could satisfy our manpower needs expeditiously while still protecting us against bad actors, the hordes now showing up at our border would slow to a trickle, I would think.
@johnldeboer That seems like a combo of manpower to enter data/queries and better programing. Should be doable.
@johnldeboer Good idea. Lots of the farm workers want to send the money back home and then go home over the winter.
@johnldeboer If I recall correctly that was a major thrust of the last bipartisan immigration reform bill decades ago. It failed when Republicans decided they'd do better politically by keeping immigration as a problem they could attack and blame Democrats for.
A solution that makes sense to me would be a work-permit program. Foreigners could work here while waiting for immigration visas (if they desire such). Europe already does this a little, but the oil-rich Mideast countries do it in a big way, using foreigners to do the lowly jobs no citizen would think of doing. Then the hotel owners, farmers, and construction companies wouldn’t have to worry about losing their workers if Republicans get their way.