Bush's immigration reform basics

Thursday, January 8, 2004

WASHINGTON, USA (UPI): President George W. Bush announced an immigration reform proposal Wednesday to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants into the country and change the status of those already in the United States.

Administration officials, speaking on background prior to Bush's mid-afternoon remarks, said the proposal for a temporary worker program was based on several principles: control of U.S. borders to protect the homeland, help the economy by matching unfilled jobs with willing foreign workers, and compassion for illegal aliens having to live in a shadowy world of a black economy.

Here are the main points of the initiative:

PROGRAM OVERVIEW: A guest worker arrangement under which foreign workers are given special visas to enter the United States to take a specific job which has gone unfilled by U.S. workers. It is a temporary arrangement - the worker is given a 3-year permit, which can be renewed for a not-yet-specified number of times, after which the worker must return to his home country.

The program applies not only to prospective workers abroad, but also to the estimated 8 million illegal aliens already in the United States. Illegal immigrants now working in the country would be deemed filling an employer need by virtue of their employment.

The illegal worker coming forward to join the program will not face deportation for having violated immigration rules. The current employer would not be penalized either.

Those under the program would be allowed to travel freely in and out of the country.

WAGES AND BENEFITS. All workers under the program must be paid at least the legal minimum wage. Social security would also be deducted, and the workers would be eligible for normal workmen benefits under U.S. law.

The plan calls for creation of special savings accounts for temporary workers to help provide them with a nest egg when they return to their home countries. There would also be other incentives for eventually returning home.

FAMILY ACCOMPANIMENT. Workers under the program would be allowed to bring their immediate family to the country providing they could prove they could support them. The family would also be governed by the temporary residence status of the permitted worker.

CITIZENSHIP/PERMANENT RESIDENCY. The temporary worker program would not be linked to normal permanent residency and citizenship immigration tracks, nor would it be considered an advantage in applying for a green card. Temporary workers who wanted to settle permanently in the United States would have to follow normal procedures already in place. 

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