President Bush: In order to ease the flow of undocumented immigrants into our country, we need to establish a temporary worker program.

• “We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis”

DMI SAYS: “While the President is right about the need for immigration reform, we need a plan that focuses first and foremost on the needs of middle-class Americans, not the big business lobby. Any immigration reform proposal that undercuts America’s middle class by creating a permanent underclass of exploited immigrant workers is unwise, inhumane and should be vigorously opposed by all Americans.”

• While our economy relies on the contributions of immigrants – both legal and illegal – there are not enough ways for immigrant workers to enter and live in the country legally.  As a result, millions of undocumented workers are forced to live in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace. When unscrupulous employers cut costs by hiring exploitable immigrants instead of native workers, this sets a new, lower standard in an industry and threatens to drive down wages and degrade working conditions for Americans trying to work their way into the middle class.
• Temporary worker programs institutionalize a permanent two-tiered labor market, formalizing some of the workplace exploitation that already exists informally. They also ensure that a continued stream of vulnerable workers will always be available, threatening to undermine middle-class wages and working conditions much as undocumented workers do now. It is plausible that many jobs will be transformed into “temporary worker jobs” at the cost of jobs that could provide the wages and benefits capable of providing a middle-class standard of living. Although some temporary worker proposals promise to enforce workplace rights for temporary workers, no matter what protections are in place, the temporary status of these workers ensures that this class of workers will always remain more vulnerable and less secure than the mainstream of American workers.
• Even when workers are offered a path to permanent legal status, the very existence of a temporary worker program ensures that they will constantly be replaced with another influx of disempowered temporary laborers.
• A sound and successful immigration policy needs to do more for American workers than what's suggested in the President's proposals. To strengthen the existing middle class and give both immigrants and U.S.-born workers a leg up, we must eliminate the second-class labor market, allowing foreign and U.S.-born workers to share an even playing field with equal labor rights and making sure that employers cannot use deportation as a coercive tool in the labor market. Without a domestic underclass of disempowered workers to compete with, middle-class American workers, and those struggling to attain a middle-class standard of living, will have more power to demand improved wages and working conditions. 
• We do give the President credit for not succumbing to the fiery rhetoric of many of his party, but urge him to go further in creating a policy that will not just solve the immigration problem, but address the real needs of our economy. 

Relevant Statistics:

• Percentage of the national workforce that undocumented workers constitute: 5
• Total number of immigrants living and working in the United States: 36 million
• Estimated number of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States: 12 million
• Percent of the nation’s purchasing power represented by Hispanic and Asian-American consumer markets, to which immigration is a major contributor: 12   

President Bush:  We must secure our border by increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and implementing high technology surveillance on the border.  We must also focus on enforcement of immigration laws at the workplace.

• “When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms the interests of our country.  To secure our border we are doubling the size of the Border Patrol – and funding new infrastructure and technology…[w]e will enforce our immigration laws at the worksite, and give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers – so there is no excuse left for violating the law.”

DMI SAYS: “Once we enact immigration reform that truly responds to our economy’s needs, those laws must be enforced diligently.  However, increased enforcement of our existing broken immigration laws and beefed up security on the border is inhumane, ineffective and extremely costly for middle-class taxpayers.”

?         The history of U.S. border policy suggests that increased border enforcement is not effective. Since the early 1990s, the nation’s spending on border security has tripled, yet the number of undocumented immigrants in the country nearly tripled as well. Increased technology and fencing on the border has only diverted migrants to cross in more dangerous areas, making apprehensions much more expensive.  What is more, as many as 50% of all undocumented immigrants enter the country legally, with tourist or other temporary visas, and remain to work here after their visas expire. A heightened presence on the border will do nothing to deter these immigrants.

?         Increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and further militarization of our border with Mexico will not regulate the flow of immigrants to the U.S. These are symbolic moves to appear tough on enforcement.  Since the border is over 2,000 miles long, a “secure border” is impossible unless an incredible tax burden is imposed on middle-class Americans.

?         Immigration raids take out the failures of the entire system on the most vulnerable participants – harshly penalizing undocumented workers even as our economy relies on their labor. Raids on individual worksites will never succeed in deporting all undocumented immigrants, but they do increase fear in immigrant communities, driving undocumented workers further underground and making them even more vulnerable to workplace exploitation that threatens to undermine the American middle class.

?         Workplace raids also devastate local and state economies.  When workers are detained and deported they cannot continue to work.  A “chilling effect” on lawfully employed workers often prevents many of them from returning to work as well – since immigration authorities are feared across immigrant communities, even by those with legal status.  When workers lose their jobs, consumer demand diminishes and local businesses suffer as a result.

?         To truly get control of our borders and ensure that workplaces operate according to the law, we need to bring our immigration laws into line with economic reality, providing legal status to the undocumented workers already contributing to our economy and providing a means for future immigrants to enter the U.S. legally.

Relevant Statistics:

• Cost to build and maintain a border fence, over 25 years: $60 billion
• Spending on border security in 1993: $480 million
• Spending on border security in 2005: $1.4 billion
• Estimated increase in the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. between 1993 and 2005: 7.2 million
• Estimated percentage of undocumented workers who enter the country legally: 40 – 50%

President Bush: We must normalize the status of undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S.

• “[W]e need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country – without animosity and without amnesty.” 

DMI SAYS: “Allowing the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the U.S. to legalize their status would be a practical attempt to eliminate the underclass of undocumented workers that currently threaten to depress wages for U.S.-born workers.  Once these workers are no longer under the constant threat of deportation, they would more readily assert their workplace rights and would no longer undercut the wages and working conditions of American workers so severely.  U.S.-born workers would no longer have to compete with an exploitable class of workers.”  

• Any plan that does not address the 12 million undocumented immigrants who live in the U.S. would not go far enough to protect American workers and would fail to adequately reform our broken immigration system.
• Any plan that is multi-tiered and overly complicated will only guarantee that many undocumented immigrants will decide to go underground, again creating a race to the bottom with their American counterparts in the workforce.

Relevant Statistics

• Estimated number of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S.: 12 million
• Number of U.S. citizen children living in families where the head of household or spouse is undocumented: 3.1 million
• Percentage of workers employed in farming occupations who are undocumented: 24
• Percentage of workers employed in cleaning occupation who are undocumented: 17
• Percentage of the foreign-born population that was undocumented in 2005: 30

President Bush:  We must promote the assimilation of new immigrants.

• “We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals.”

DMI SAYS: “Any successful assimilation plan must include a dramatic increase in federal funding for ESL and civics programs.”

• One of the first steps toward assimilation is the acquisition of the English language. Speaking English is vital for immigrants as they adapt to our society, interact with healthcare professionals, move up in their jobs and communicate with their children’s schools.  A study of immigrants in Los Angeles and New York found limited English proficiency to be closely related to low earnings and poverty.
• Newly arrived immigrants will always struggle more with the language than those who have been here longer, but more than three-quarters of immigrants are English proficient within ten years of coming to the U.S. 
• Immigrants, by an overwhelming margin, want to learn English but classes are inaccessible. Because of limited funding, many ESL programs have waiting lists that can be up to a year long and full of thousands of names. 

Relevant Statistics

• Percentage of Latinos who believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society: 57
• Of the one million New Yorkers who wanted to learn English in 2001, percentage of people for whom classes were available: 5
• An immigrant who is fluent in English will earn approximately 24% more than one who is not, regardless of qualifications.

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