The New York Times has a front-page story by their immigration reporter Julia Preston that is well worth the read. Ms. Preston is one of a small number of reporters that covers immigration on a full-time basis and it really shows in the depth of her reporting.
The story is the first I’ve seen to cover a new phenomenon in immigration politics. In states across the country, employers fed up with being targeted for enforcement without simultaneously Congress taking steps to create necessary legal avenues to sponsor guest workers. For those of you who buy the Lou Dobbs canard that we have plenty of guest worker visas, the only guest worker program available for those workers in non-professional positions is the H-2B program with a cap of 66,000 visas per year. With millions and millions of illegal workers in the US, the H-2B program is really like having no program at all.
The groups working on these issues are providing an important reminder that politicians who claim to be pro-business but who have not worked to provide guest worker programs to America’s businsesses are ANTI-BUSINESS. Any politician who touts their pro-business voting record but who has voted against legal work visa programs is simply being disingenous and cannot honestly claim to care about the needs of America’s employers. They are every bit as anti-business as the politicians they derail for being for big government.
I’m also glad to see Tamar Jacoby of ImmigrationWorksUSA quoted. She’s doing remarkable work trying to facilitate the establishment of state business immigration coalitions and coordinating their efforts. Here’s a graphic from the story on legislation around the country. I’m proud to say I’ve helped ImmigrationWorksUSA on compiling some of the data. You can click on the picture for a better view.
