Jan 9, 2004
Bush Announces New Immigration PlanSource: Various

In a call for action, President Bush announced plans for a huge renovation of the current American immigration system. He is proposing to grant legal status to millions of illegal workers that are now in the United States because the current method is not working in the United States, says the Associated Press (AP).

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The President feels that immigrants should be able to have jobs in this country that the American citizens are not taking. ANLA’s own Craig Regelbrugge was invited to attend the press conference on Wednesday Jan. 7, and he said it was a very exciting moment for the people in our industry. “We realized some years ago that this problem needs to be addressed to stabilize the work force, not only now but for the future as well,” Regelbrugge explains.

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Supposedly the new plan is designed to create a temporary program for undocumented workers currently in the U.S. and other countries that have been offered jobs here.

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Bush said during the conference that we as a nation depend on and value immigrant workers, and we should have laws that back them up. He hopes this plan, if agreed by Congress, would allow for a more compassionate way for immigrants to live in the United States, allowing them to be protected with labor laws, fair wages, the right to change jobs and general working conditions that the rest of the country is protected by. Regelbrugge agrees that we need to find a way to draw out the illegal workers and support them and work with them to get them the legal status to be a worker in the United States with all of the same opportunities.

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AP states that the new proposal would strengthen borders and create a more secure nation because there will be accountability of the people entering the United States allowing law enforcement officials to focus more on eminent threats and not the people coming into the country that are allowed.

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This new plan allows for the temporary workers to work in any type of business in the United States instead of certain sectors like a temporary work visa allows however, specific details are still in the works. According to Regelbrugge, this is something that will help bring out the undocumented workers so that we can show them our large need for them in our industry.




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