Good questions. the H1Bs are easy: give a Green Card to every one of them who wants one and has passed or can pass a criminal background check -- now, and do it as a one time thing over and above the limits of any new system. They'd pass any point system and they're immediately productive. That's a no-brainer for me. Long term illegals are a tougher question, but I have some ideas on that.
As I've said before, I'm highly skeptical of any "seasonal labor" scheme that subsidizes crops that wouldn't be economical to grow in this country without importing below market rate labor: I think that we should be importing those crops from countries where they CAN be grown economically, and use our land in more productive ways. I suppose that I could go along with a permit plan, where growers were issued permits, one per employee, to bring in a set number of workers with a requirement that they pay prevailing wage and provide a defined benefit package, both to be defined and audited by the Department of Labor, and with crippling sanctions on growers who evaded the system. I doubt that we'd see much seasonal labor under that kind of scheme, but I'd be comfortable that the seasonal labor that we did see was being treated fairly.
I know Brazil well, because that's where I live, and I've experienced the immigration system as a legal immigrant and a naturalized Brazilian -- I'm a dual citizen now. I was impressed with the way I was treated, and impressed with the way that the hundreds of Venezuelan refugees who were being processed at the same time I was were treated, too.
The illegal Brazilian communities in the US are an example of how susceptible the US immigration (non) system is to being gamed. Obviously, no Brazilian has "a justified fear of persecution", and no Brazilian qualifies for asylum under any sane interpretation of international law. Brazil itself is even a haven for refugees. Most of the Brazilians in the US also aren't close to poor: the majority of them belong to what in Brazil are called "The New Middle Class", the people who advanced from poverty to lower middle class lifestyles during the twelve years that the PT was in power, under Lula and Dilma Rousseff.
There is, for lack of a better term, an illegal immigration industry based in the medium sized city of Governador Valadares in the State of Minas Gerais. Technically I suppose that you could call it "organized crime" because it IS organized and it IS illegal -- in the US, if not exactly in Brazil -- but that conjures up images of mafiosi and drug lords, and for the most part, it's not that. It's more like a bunch of entrepreneurs in a reasonably prosperous area who realized that there was money to be made in gaming the US immigration system, and a lot of people who could afford (sometimes probably with help) their services. A large percentage of illegal Brazilians in the US are from Valadares and its environs -- so many, in fact, that when the US does send a deportation flight to Brazil, it doesn't land in São Paulo, Rio, or Brasília. It lands in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, an easy 214 mile bus ride to Governador Valadares. The passengers can be home for dinner.
I can't think of a single crop requiring stoop labor that not growing here would be a matter of national security. A lettuce crisis? A strawberry disaster? Nah. And if it makes economic sense to mechanize it, the growers will. I consider Mexico to be a highly reliable source for not only our uneconomical agricultural products, but also for a lot of the manufactured goods and subassemblies that we used to buy from them and moved to China. Now, there's a national security issue for you.
With you on Arizona, and the Imperial Valley of California for that matter. If we don't do something proactive about the Colorado River very soon, lack of water is going to make the important decisions for us, and not in ways that we'd choose.
Good questions. the H1Bs are easy: give a Green Card to every one of them who wants one and has passed or can pass a criminal background check -- now, and do it as a one time thing over and above the limits of any new system. They'd pass any point system and they're immediately productive. That's a no-brainer for me. Long term illegals are a tougher question, but I have some ideas on that.
As I've said before, I'm highly skeptical of any "seasonal labor" scheme that subsidizes crops that wouldn't be economical to grow in this country without importing below market rate labor: I think that we should be importing those crops from countries where they CAN be grown economically, and use our land in more productive ways. I suppose that I could go along with a permit plan, where growers were issued permits, one per employee, to bring in a set number of workers with a requirement that they pay prevailing wage and provide a defined benefit package, both to be defined and audited by the Department of Labor, and with crippling sanctions on growers who evaded the system. I doubt that we'd see much seasonal labor under that kind of scheme, but I'd be comfortable that the seasonal labor that we did see was being treated fairly.
I know Brazil well, because that's where I live, and I've experienced the immigration system as a legal immigrant and a naturalized Brazilian -- I'm a dual citizen now. I was impressed with the way I was treated, and impressed with the way that the hundreds of Venezuelan refugees who were being processed at the same time I was were treated, too.
The illegal Brazilian communities in the US are an example of how susceptible the US immigration (non) system is to being gamed. Obviously, no Brazilian has "a justified fear of persecution", and no Brazilian qualifies for asylum under any sane interpretation of international law. Brazil itself is even a haven for refugees. Most of the Brazilians in the US also aren't close to poor: the majority of them belong to what in Brazil are called "The New Middle Class", the people who advanced from poverty to lower middle class lifestyles during the twelve years that the PT was in power, under Lula and Dilma Rousseff.
There is, for lack of a better term, an illegal immigration industry based in the medium sized city of Governador Valadares in the State of Minas Gerais. Technically I suppose that you could call it "organized crime" because it IS organized and it IS illegal -- in the US, if not exactly in Brazil -- but that conjures up images of mafiosi and drug lords, and for the most part, it's not that. It's more like a bunch of entrepreneurs in a reasonably prosperous area who realized that there was money to be made in gaming the US immigration system, and a lot of people who could afford (sometimes probably with help) their services. A large percentage of illegal Brazilians in the US are from Valadares and its environs -- so many, in fact, that when the US does send a deportation flight to Brazil, it doesn't land in São Paulo, Rio, or Brasília. It lands in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, an easy 214 mile bus ride to Governador Valadares. The passengers can be home for dinner.
Good discussion -- thanks.
I can't think of a single crop requiring stoop labor that not growing here would be a matter of national security. A lettuce crisis? A strawberry disaster? Nah. And if it makes economic sense to mechanize it, the growers will. I consider Mexico to be a highly reliable source for not only our uneconomical agricultural products, but also for a lot of the manufactured goods and subassemblies that we used to buy from them and moved to China. Now, there's a national security issue for you.
With you on Arizona, and the Imperial Valley of California for that matter. If we don't do something proactive about the Colorado River very soon, lack of water is going to make the important decisions for us, and not in ways that we'd choose.