Opinion in Brief: Permitting a problem
President Bush’s proposal to give foreign workers a guest permit goes beyond the weak strategies of tightening border security and threatening employers of illegal immigrants. But it’s still a long shot from helpful.
Under Bush’s plan, the millions of illegal immigrants would be able to register and work in the country for up to six years.
President Bush’s proposal to give foreign workers a guest permit goes beyond the weak strategies of tightening border security and threatening employers of illegal immigrants. But it’s still a long shot from helpful.
Under Bush’s plan, the millions of illegal immigrants would be able to register and work in the country for up to six years. Bush asserted that this policy isn’t offering amnesty, which is true because these workers would presumably be forced to leave after their allotted time expired. However, this won’t solve anything in the long run.
Even if all estimated 12 million illegal aliens are granted temporary legal status to work in the U.S., there will be a growing number of new undocumented workers coming into the country. Are we just going to keep getting illegal immigrants to step forward for their guest permits so that we can deport them in six more years?
While Bush’s plan is better than building a wall along the border, it’s still myopic and impractical. To his credit, there is no easy solution, but we’ve got to do more than temporarily eliminate the problem.
