Investors Business Daily is reporting Illegal Immigration is Down and Mexican Jobs Up. They are also saying the Border Patrol is reporting Illegal immigration apprehensions are down 38% from October '06 through June '07 because the rate of those coming over the border is down and so many illegal immigrants are leaving. Additionally, remittances are down to only.6% for the first half of 2007 (vs 23% the first half of 2006).
Yet the ANTI Blogs do not mention the improvements. Anyone following the Immigration issues knows and understands we are in the midst of an ebb in Immigration.
We are also in the midst of a severe Labor Shortage. Dianne Feinstein is saying the crops are rotting on the vines. It is time we put a viable guest worker program in place to care for our worker shortages.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
H-2B visas provide agriculture with all the labor it could ever want but the come with some regulations regarding how the migrants should be treated so employers want to find another avenue to obtain the workers they need without any strings attached. How many are in favor of letting employers off the hook? How many would like to migrant workers treated humanely and paid a fair wage?
That's good news if true. Feinstein should know. She has a vineyard.
Maybe we could advance the argument better if posts did not contain inflammatory rhetoric like "blathering", "bloviating" and "re-faced anger". There's plenty of that to go around on both sides so it serves no useful purpose to use those terms.
point taken Ulty. I´ve taken out the word in my post.
So what are your recommendations for the fruit of the vines being harvested this year?
Nope no overall labor shortage at all. The crops aren't being picked because no one wants to pick them anymore including the illegals. Let's mechanize as much as possible and only then have a foreign guest worker come to fill any shortages in that industry with the understanding that is the only type of work they will be allowed to do.
Even if there are fewer illegals crossing our borders these days, most loyal Americans won't be satisfied until the ones already here, leave.
Pat,
You do make a point. Picking and harvesting crops is a job most Americans do not want to do. Mechanization is in use and I believe it is maximized. The issue is, manual intervention is still required and Americans refuse to do these jobs. Think of the Venga a Michigan programs. We have had severe labor shortages in Michigan, yet the auto workers refuse to go out and pick crops. Or think of your teenage children. They would prefer to play XBox or PS2 vs picking crops.
The fact is, the crops are rotting on the vine. Without workers who will do the jobs, we are in this predicament. What do we do? Are you going to force autoworkers and your teenagers to go out and pick the crops?
Mechanization has not been maximized in this country. It has been in Europe though and we should follow their example.
It is unrealistic to expect laid off auto workers to pick crops for a living. It doesn't pay a liveable wage and it is not what they were trained to do. Besides most of these auto workers probably live in the city.
Teenagers can pick crops in the summer but it is only part time. Like the auto workers many if not most of them live in the city anyway.
Until such mechanization occurs if the ag industry proves a need for more foreign workers for these jobs, can you think of any reason we wouldn't increase visas for such workers, especially since Feinstein claims the fruits are rotting on the vines? Something is rotten in Denmark if this isn't happening. I have a hunch that they like the illegal workers so they can pay them less. Well its come back to bite them in the butt so to speak and now they whine.
"Washington— U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol apprehensions are down 24 percent compared to the previous year along the southwest border, indicating a continued decline in illegal cross-border activity between ports of entry.
During the period Oct. 1-June 30, Border Patrol agents made 682,468 apprehensions along the nation’s southern border compared to 894,496 apprehensions during the same period last year. The Yuma, Ariz., and Del Rio, Texas, sectors experienced the greatest declines, with a decrease of 68 percent and 51 percent with 34,140 and 18,286 apprehensions respectively. The number of other-than-Mexican alien apprehensions dropped 48 percent along the southern border, which totaled 43,135 through the third quarter 2007. The decrease in other-than-Mexican apprehensions reduces the time agents spend transporting and processing, and increases time spent patrolling the border."
I make two observations about this. Bob Schmidt once pointed out that there is little reason for illegals to cross the border between checkpoints because fake IDs are readily available on the Mexican side of the border and because the daily volume of traffic particularly pedestrian traffic is so high that it is impossible to adequately check the IDs in even a perfunctory way. If the card is the right color, that's about all that is needed. Is it possible that the word is out that it is easier to just walk across the border at the points of entry than anywhere in between? I note that the statistics say nothing about apprehensions at the points of entry.
Also I see that there was a 48% drop in the OTM apprehensions. This tends to dilute the overall figure of 24% if one is only interested in Mexicans and I'm not saying we are. OTMs are of great interest but this also means that the 24% is overstated with regard to only Mexicans.
Nevertheless, this is good news. Think what the additional BP agents and the full panoply of infrastructure will be able to do. Hurrah for America!
"So what are your recommendations for the fruit of the vines being harvested this year?" H-2B visas
The H2B visa is available to employers of foreign non-professionals (unskilled workers) not working in the agricultural field. This visa is only available for work that is temporary in nature. For H2B purposes, that means:
* Recurring seasonal need;
* Intermittent need;
* Peak-load need; and
* One time occurrence.
The employer must also prove that there are no unemployed US workers willing or able to do the work. This is established through the state's employment agency using a labor certification process. This process requires a recruitment campaign, including advertising in a local newspaper for available temporary workers.
Why not extend this type of visa to agricultural workers instead inventing another new class of visas.
re: "Are you going to force autoworkers and your teenagers"
This is hi tech workers also. I've contacted unemployed former co-workers about six figure opportunities in legacy IT where there are plenty of jobs. NO! is said several ways.
One said when her unemployment comp ran out she'd get a job and her spouse would collect unemployment comp.
One said that they took a C++ class and were now looking for a six figure job in their new skill in which they had no experience and would not take a six figure job in their old skill.
Some just turn up their nose. They wouldn't have any job that would have them.
Cesar Martinez of our friends at MATT was on CSPAN Friday night with a panel from National Council of LaRaza. Watch it if you get a chance... if it is still running in the CSPAN recycle bin.
I heard a few new things I had not thought of before. Plus, I heard many generalizations and mis-representations that show that people in the debate still are in a state of denial and ad hominem.
Bob, I agree. Many people (esp PROs) are in a state of denial. I will look for the rerun on CSPAN but will you share with us some of what you heard?
Post a Comment