I for one believe that we absolutely need an improved guest worker program, one that holds immigrants and employers accountable and yet still enables us to get a crop out of the ground in south Georgia.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The federal government secures the border; Californians decide how we want to treat our population. I think we need a vibrant guest worker program. If we have one, we're going to stop having a lot of issues at the border.
I'm in favor of building the fence, and doing everything technologically to protect our borders. But the other way to secure the border, and one of the things we must do, is put in place good guest-worker programs that employers can actually use.
Many talk about a guest worker program. I think most reasonable people believe that a guest worker program in the farming industry, perhaps in the gardening and landscape industries, is reasonable.
The only area that I would agree with minimum wage is in immigration reform, the guest worker program.
I'd be 100 percent supportive of a minimum wage - kind of industry specific, maybe regionally specific - for guest workers, so that we're not creating incentives for employers to bring in immigrants to lower the price of labor.
Enforcement is the long overdue step to protect our Nation from external threats in a time of war. And then once we do that, we can effectively discuss a guest worker program.
I have long been a proponent of a guest-worker program between the United States and Mexico, and in particular I have proposed that Arizona would be an ideal location for a pilot project.
Business owners have made a strong case to me that they need guest workers. But none has suggested that these workers should be placed on a path to citizenship.
A recent Pew Hispanic survey found that more than 70 percent of illegal immigrants from Mexico are interested in a guest-worker program and then returning home.
But also, the guest workers program, it's quite often misused, meaning people could come in as part of a guest workers program and after two weeks in the fields, they'd run off to do every other kind of job that isn't covered by a guest workers program.
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