Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Temporary Work Visas -- A Modest Proposal

There's a lot of bluster in the media regarding immigration "reform", whether one operates from Ron Paul's "lets make only US-born children of citizens automatic citizens" approach (absolute anathema to the La Raza racists), or from La Raza's "borders are inherently racist" belief (I think we all know where I stand on that one). One thing that keeps getting offered as a compromize position is the ability to have temporary workers come into the country. Temporary workers are a mixed bag, economically -- US Companies can exploit income inequities between the US & Mexico in their perennial drive to minimize costs: this results in cheaper goods for US consumers and a total dearth of low-end jobs that pay enough to let anyone climb out of poverty. Let's just say for purposes of argument that temporary workers are a good idea, even if only as an optimization or compromize position. The next big question becomes: how to ensure that temporary workers are really temporary? Why won't they just stay in-country? If Visa-allocation works anything like most programs do today, then a temporary work-visa is dead on arrival: there's nothing to keep workers from staying.

However, (drum roll, please)

The temporary work Visa (workable version):
  • Temporary work Visas are issued by US'ian embassies in the countries of origin of the candidate workers, with full attention paid to criminal history, &c. .
  • Temporary Work Visas each carry a unique, trackable ID number, distinct from Social Security Numbers or other IDs.
  • Candidate workers, upon receipt of their Visa, may back and forth to the US freely just as any legally resident alien may do.
  • Once the Visa is expired, there is a fixed period of time during which the worker must register at the US'ian embassy in his/her own country, in person. This deallocates the Visa ID#, allowing it to be re-issued to another worker. (like checking in a library book)
  • At any point of time, only a fixed number of Temporary Visa IDs are allowed to exist; if a worker fails to re-appear at the US'ian embassy, the temporary Visa is not re-established.
  • If the worker fails to de-register at the US'ian embassy, an ICE arrest warrant is automatically issued for the offender.
  • If an offending temporary worker if forcibly removed to his/her country of origin, the temporary Visa ID is once again made available for use by other workers.
  • To incent desired behavior on the part of temporary workers, workers who have already completed used temporary Visas without incident receive added priority for re-issue of another temporary Visa.
  • US'ian embassies will routinely publish lists of temporary workers holding up Visas that could be issued to their fellow citizens in the foreign country.
  • Visas are re-issued should the temporary worker die while in the US, &c.
If we were to follow this program, then we gain three benefits:
  1. If temporary workers attempt to use the program for illicit entry into the US on a permanent basis, the system automatically corrects for their presence, affecting the offending workers' countries of origin without penalizing others.
  2. It would allow the actual population of foreign workers to be directly managed, rather than attempting to manage a "rate of infow"-type metric with "Visas per year" as we have now.
  3. By killing off a mechanism for illicit "sneak in the back door" immigration, it would allow the US to welcome more immigrants in through the "front door" with full support, dignity, &c.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to think about this one for awhile, and while I like it on paper - I just don't see it working without an enforcement provision on US employers. Too many people will just ignore the rules, or - just forge those papers anyway. Most importantly, you have to get US employers to NOT HIRE anyone without that necessary paperwork. If you don't force them to participate, or at least reward those who do use the rules and punish those who don't, the system won't work.

At least not in my opinion anyway.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Alex and also missing from this is something to make the borders iron-clad so that illegals CAN'T get in.. Otherwise the part that is missing from your equation is the 'why bother' factor on the part of the illegal immigrant? Why go through a bunch of (even small) hoops to get the card and come legally when they can just come over illegally so easily..

Good start but I think all realistic border control plans have to start with.. drum roll.. controlling the border.

Personally I advocate lining the border with the Active Denial System.. Pain generators that can't be tolerated, dug under or crawled over.. Given the area, the things could likely be powered by massive solar arrays..

JimDesu said...

I'm not talking about creating a mechanism to fix border enforcement; I'm just describing a mechanism that would allow temporary workers without making the situation even worse.

Honestly, there's so much bribe money available that until the "war on drugs" is stopped, I don't think the border will ever be secure. But maybe that's just my own pessimism.

Anonymous said...

I think the program you describe would work well for those now coming in on H1B visas - who are generally well educated, have a specific skill set in need, but might not be needed permanently. These people likely would like a better process than what is going on now.

But for those just trying to get a job better paying than what they can get in Central or South America, they won't bother with this approach unless their potential employers have to use it.

JimDesu said...

I'm not so sure about that; this would be much less expensive & onerous than paying "coyotes" to sneak you across the border late at night. Given the very real dangers of crossing the border illegally, would anyone want to risk their lives with a bunch of bandits when they could just stroll through the front door, and could travel back & forth to see their families as often as they chose? I can't imagine that people wouldn't rather take the safer, more dignified route.

Except of course for the smugglers, gangsters and other crooks, but then that's what bullets were invented for....

Anonymous said...

A very good point about the Coyotes. I still think some level of enforcement on the employers is needed since they're the ones that obviously have to provide a job for the temporary worker, and if they instead choose the illegal route they could still use it, and pay less per hour, for the workers so desperate (or untrusting of the new work Visa program) to get in that they pay the Coyote who now had to lower his rates to compete with the work visa program.

It's a very idealistic program you spell out, which I like, but far too many others out there stomp all over idealistic programs ruining it for everyone.

Unknown said...

superbiff wrote:
"Otherwise the part that is missing from your equation is the 'why bother' factor on the part of the illegal immigrant? Why go through a bunch of (even small) hoops to get the card and come legally when they can just come over illegally so easily.."

Border deaths of migrants attempting to cross from Mexico to the US:
1995: 61
1996: 59
1997: 129
1998: 325
1999: 356
2000: 491
2001: 291
2002: 371
2003: 431
2004: 373

Unknown said...

oops, forgot to source that.
figures are from the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

Anonymous said...

Statistics without context are meaningless.. Compared to the 10-13 some million illegals estimated to be in the country right now, 3000 in the last 12 years is a tiny number. And that doesn't even take into account repeat crossings.

Were those deaths any serious deterrant or indicative of a major risk in crossing, illegal crossings would have slowed or stopped.

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