Dan Stein Work Quotations

In reality, the choices we have before us are amnesty and guest workers on the one hand -- which would amount to a massive sell-out of the American middle class -- and, on the other hand, a comprehensive enforcement effort that eliminates the reasons why people come and remain in the U.S. illegally. There is a whole smorgasbord of options available to enforce our immigration laws, yet the president is still claiming that there is only one item on the menu.

Rather than creating conditions that allow American workers to fill jobs at higher wages, what the president is proposing merely converts low wage illegal aliens into low wage workers with visas. Our economy would have to adapt if the influx of cheap foreign labor is ended, but that is an adjustment strongly desired by a majority of Americans, whether native-born or foreign-born. The concept that our economy must be served by a permanent under-class of foreign guest workers is reprehensible and unacceptable.

The devil is in the details' is an utterly reckless and irresponsible way to conduct public policy. The fiscal, social, environmental and demographic consequences of what the Senate is proposing would be staggering. In an effort to respond to special interest pressure, the Senate and the Bush Administration seem prepared to rush forward without any rational assessment of what it would mean for the future of the nation. We have seen where the 'devil is in the details' approach has gotten us in Iraq. The president and others pushing amnesty and guest workers have an obligation to think this one all the way through before acting.

The conditions that led to the original designation of TPS for these Central Americans were not such that persons could not return home in the first place, and there clearly is no such justification now several years later. Further, it is an insult to the American public to use the TPS process to give legal work status to persons who entered the US illegally as is the case with most of the Central Americans benefiting from the administration's action. It is absurd to believe that these persons who entered the US illegally are going to voluntarily return to their home country once their work permits are no longer valid.

While countless Americans see their real wages falling, and are struggling to maintain a foothold in the middle class, Sen. Specter and President Bush are cooking up a plan that will lead to their marginalization. What they are trying foist upon the American public as 'immigration reform' will be a fraud-ridden amnesty and unlimited numbers of new guest workers to compete for the jobs American workers still hold. If this bill should ever be enacted, the America that most people know will become unrecognizable as a result of the most massive wave of immigration in history.

Overcrowded, multilingual, schools will not become manageable because the kids are suddenly the children of guest workers, instead of illegal aliens. Millions of unskilled laborers will not magically become high-earning taxpayers because they have work visas. State budget crises will not be alleviated, housing will not become more affordable, traffic will not become less congested, and middle class jobs will not become more plentiful if we give everyone who is here, or who wants to come here, a piece of paper that says they're legal.

The damage that the Domenici bill would do every aspect of life in America would be incalculable. In very short order, America would become a vastly overpopulated nation devoid of a middle class. The United States Senate owes it to the American public to reject this and similar amnesty and guest worker bills and focus on protecting our borders and the survival of the American middle class.

A massive guest worker program is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The real problem is a relentless assault on middle class workers in this country. The people gathering outside Sen. Feinstein's office will be seeking her leadership to save the middle class worker, before they really do become rarer than the California condor.

But there is not much hope for Americans in blue-collar work being able to hold their jobs if the guest worker proposal is adopted. Concerned citizens will not have much hope that today's illegal workers will leave the country after being given six-year work permits, and they will simply have to hope that there is still a middle class in a few years. President Bush also talked about 'stronger immigration enforcement and border protection,' and we might hope that after decades of broken promises that this time he really means it, but the record does not justify much hope.