Testimony before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives

Farmers would have an easier and cheaper time securing foreign guest workers under pending Bush administration rules.

The controversial changes to the so-called H-2A guest-worker program could cut wages and speed worker recruitment. They also would relax requirements for providing foreign workers with housing and transportation.

"The Department of Labor is going to weaken oversight and enforcement," Bruce Goldstein, the executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund, charged Wednesday.

"Officials with Sun Valley Co. in central Idaho say they will hire fewer ski instructors and other workers from foreign countries this season because a nationwide visa program has reached its limit.

Matt Parke, Sun Valley Co. personnel manager, said the 66,000 national limit for H2-B visas was reached July 29, the earliest it has been met since the program started in 1990.

"It will definitely affect us," Parke told the Idaho Mountain Express. "We sometimes hire 200-plus H2-B employees, and with extensions we'll be about half that...."

"Absolutely we would favor educating and training the labor force of legal immigrants over bringing in more foreign workers," said Roy Beck, president of the Virginia-based NumbersUSA. "Let's invest in people we have here."

NumbersUSA and other immigration-control groups lobbying against the H-2B extension argue that bringing foreign workers into the country will take jobs that could be filled by unemployed Americans. Many are collaborating within the Coalition for the Future American Worker...

But NumbersUSA Government Affairs Director Rosemary Jenks says the Hispanic Caucus’ blockade is probably temporary. “I don’t think it’s a plausible long-term plan [for immigrant groups to stall the energy bill],” she said. “The businesses’ interests have so much money stacked behind this bill.”

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates reduced immigration, believes H-2Bs hurt American workers. "Businesses should recruit from their own country," he says.

"The money and the lobbying power is stacked against us," said a representative of NumbersUSA. "This is an issue that people see and experience the effects of on an everyday basis. There is definitely a very powerful grass-roots activism on this issue."

NumbersUSA has more than 300,000 activists sending faxes and calling Congress, an increase from 100,000 two years ago. More than 1 million people receive e-mail alerts from the group.

"Absolutely we would favor educating and training the labor force of legal immigrants over bringing in more foreign workers," said Roy Beck, president of the Virginia-based NumbersUSA. "Let's invest in people we have here."

NumbersUSA and other immigration-control groups lobbying against the H-2B extension argue that bringing foreign workers into the country will take jobs that could be filled by unemployed Americans. Many are collaborating within the Coalition for the Future American Worker...

But NumbersUSA Government Affairs Director Rosemary Jenks says the Hispanic Caucus’ blockade is probably temporary. “I don’t think it’s a plausible long-term plan [for immigrant groups to stall the energy bill],” she said. “The businesses’ interests have so much money stacked behind this bill.”

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates reduced immigration, believes H-2Bs hurt American workers. "Businesses should recruit from their own country," he says.

"The money and the lobbying power is stacked against us," said a representative of NumbersUSA. "This is an issue that people see and experience the effects of on an everyday basis. There is definitely a very powerful grass-roots activism on this issue."

NumbersUSA has more than 300,000 activists sending faxes and calling Congress, an increase from 100,000 two years ago. More than 1 million people receive e-mail alerts from the group.

Are massive legal immigration and massive illegal immigration related? If so, how? Many in policy circles hold a view of "Legal immigration, good; illegal immigration, bad." The logical extensions of such a simplistic perspective are to assume that the overall level of legal immigration does not matter and to underestimate any correlation to illegal immigration. But the facts show a distinct connection exists... Many aliens who receive a permanent resident visa each year have spent years living in the United States illegally... "Anchor babies" and "chain migration" provide opportunities for many aliens to plant roots in the United States. Those aliens might not otherwise have done so.

Are massive legal immigration and massive illegal immigration related? If so, how? Many in policy circles hold a view of "Legal immigration, good; illegal immigration, bad." The logical extensions of such a simplistic perspective are to assume that the overall level of legal immigration does not matter and to underestimate any correlation to illegal immigration. But the facts show a distinct connection exists... Many aliens who receive a permanent resident visa each year have spent years living in the United States illegally... "Anchor babies" and "chain migration" provide opportunities for many aliens to plant roots in the United States. Those aliens might not otherwise have done so.