Should the US Adopt a Guest Worker Program?
Each year, more than half a million people enter the US illegally. As of 2009, there were an estimated 11 to 12 million illegals already living in — and in many cases — working in the US. The cold, hard reality is that rounding up and deporting every last illegal is logistically and politically impossible. To deal with the existing element of illegal residents, the idea of a guest worker program has been floated by those on the left and the right. It is a prickly issue, because there are those, like Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, who consider a guest worker program to be a “transparent amnesty reward for illegal aliens” that would undercut wages for US workers thanks to employers who hire migrants at lower rates. Pros A growing number of conservatives see the upside of the guest worker program, however. The way it was proposed by President George W. Bush, entry into the program would require the payment of a fine and a push to the back of the employment line, with p
