A guest worker program strikes me as economically exploitative and socially discriminatory. The message is clear: "You Mexicans (because that's who we are really talking about - not Bosnians or Canadians or Turks) can work for us but you can't live among us. And we will pay you substandard wages because it doesn't cost much for you people to live in hovels."
Barbara Bush captured that sentiment perfectly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: "And so many of the people in the (Houston Astrodome) here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." So much for new opportunities and better lives.
Let's face it: 12 million people comprise fully 5% of the nation's population. They are here now. They consume resources now. They will not go away. They cannot be ignored. We cannot "felonize" them. They should not be exploited. We have to play the hand we are dealt.
Instead of engaging in protracted, rancorous, partisan debate on the problem, perhaps Congress can soon turn its attention to a practical solution. Part 2 of this series outlines one possible approach.
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