Arizona, Colorado Consider State Guest-Worker Programs

Jeremy Hunt - noemail@earthwormjobs.com — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:45:00 GMT

Lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado are considering creating their own guest-worker programs to attract more immigrant laborers. It's unclear whether states have the authority to adopt such measures, but legislators are tired of waiting for Congress to overhaul the immigration system - and they are taking matters into their own hands.

The federal government has run guest-worker programs for more than a century, but congressional efforts to overhaul the system stalled in 2006 and 2007.

The Arizona proposal aims to create a program run entirely by the state. Employers could recruit workers through Mexican consulates if they can document a labor shortage and unsuccessful efforts to find local employees.

If approved, the measure would admit an unlimited number of workers in a wide range of industries.

The Colorado proposal is intended to help chili, tomato and watermelon farmers. It's aimed at eliminating bottlenecks that slow federal applications for immigrant laborers. As an incentive for workers to return to their homelands, Colorado farmers would be required to withhold 20 percent of workers' wages and send the money after the workers move home.

The Arizona bill got unanimous approval last month from a legislative committee.

A sponsor of the Colorado proposal said she may scale back the bill because of opposition, reducing it to a program that would let the state hire labor firms in Mexico to find workers and help resolve procedural problems at U.S. consulates there.

Neither measure has come to a vote before the full House or Senate.

Immigration law experts said states don't have the foreign-policy power to negotiate guest-worker agreements, but Congress could grant them permission to do so.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, a former Border Patrol boss who supports revamping the nation's guest-worker programs, said it's unlikely states would get the necessary permission to arrange their own foreign labor.

He also said it's ironic that Arizona and Colorado are so eager for cheap foreign labor because in recent years both states have cracked down on illegal immigration.

"I'd say to the states: You can't have it both ways,' " Reyes said.

Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an advocate of expanding state and local immigration efforts, said the proposals could never hold up in court. He said the Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot impose additional conditions on immigrants who are working legally in the United States.

Aside from the legal barriers, state-run guest-worker programs would probably face another hurdle: Businesses in other states that lean on Congress to sink the idea, because their rivals could pay lower wages and get a steadier supply of labor.

The Arizona bill is also opposed by some immigrant-rights groups, which have backed immigration-reform efforts but fear the state plans would exploit immigrants.

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10-Apr-08 7:45 PM

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Arizona, Colorado Consider State Guest-Worker Programs