In
National Review, I explore the Gang of Eight's guest-worker plans and suggest how they might be problematic for the GOP:
The vast majority of media attention on the Gang of Eight’s
immigration bill has focused on three aspects: the legalization of
illegal immigrants, the promise of future enforcement (and to what
degree that promise will be broken), and the political fallout of the
bill and debates about it. However, the Gang of Eight bill also makes
far-reaching reforms to other aspects of the immigration system. Under
the proposed bill, the nation’s guest-worker programs would be
considerably expanded — and this expansion has major implications for
the nation as a whole, especially its workers. This guest-worker program
could have three big outcomes: bigger government, bigger downward
pressure on wages, and bigger problems for the GOP and the future of
conservative principles.
Under this bill, the three principal guest-worker programs would be agricultural, low-skilled labor, and high-skilled labor. According to
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, the U.S. already
issues 700,000 guest-worker visas a year. Some of these visa-holders
work in the U.S. for a short period of time, but others can stay for
much longer. The Gang of Eight bill significantly increases the number
of guest-worker visas. The annual cap on H-1B visas — meant for
“high-skill” guest workers, especially those in technical fields — would
immediately jump from 65,000 to 110,000. This new cap would be the
floor for H-1B visa numbers in the future, and it would have the
potential to rise in further years, all the way up to 180,000.
Read the rest
here.
