Monday, February 06, 2006

The president has offered up his 2007 budget proposal. Here is the summary of immigration policy. It does note that:

we must also recognize that enforcement cannot work unless it is part of a comprehensive immigration reform program. The U.S. economy has legitimate needs for foreign workers and the best way to fill that demand is with a Temporary Worker Program (TWP).

The budget allocates $247 million for this program, but I could not find any specific quota numbers. In their book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors, Massey, Durand and Malone suggest having 300,000 two-year visas annually—I doubt we’ll end up with that many, but if it’s too small then it won’t work at all.

There is also $111 million to improve an existing immigrant verification system and $47 million for additional agents. A big question, of course, is whether temporary workers will leave when their visas expire, and there is no mention of incentives to get them to do so. If they just stay anyway, then it won’t work at all.

So now let’s see what Congress does with it. Tom Tancredo et al will be waiting to rip it to shreds. If they do so, it won’t work at all.

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