Bush Calls for Temporary Worker Program

President George Bush called for a temporary worker program as part of his call for comprehensive immigration reform in a primetime speech May 15.

“The reality is that there are many people on the other side of the border who will do anything to come to America and work to build a better life,” he says.

As part of his plan to thwart illegal immigration, he called for a worker program that allows immigrants to work in the U.S. for a short period of time and then return to their home countries. These workers would pay taxes while they are here, he says.

One of the problems employers face today is that they can’t tell if their employees are in the country illegally, Bush says, adding a new tamper-proof identification system would help to solve this problem. Employers would be accountable if their workers were found to be illegal, he says.

The tamper proof system is one of the reasons the plan is a plus for the green industry, says John Farner, director of legislation at the American Nursery and Landscape Association. "It gives folks who are hiring the ability to understand if the employees are legal to work in U.S.," he says. "Right now they're not trained to do that."

In addition, the worker program creates an avenue for landscape contractors who want year-round employees but can't currently do that with the seasonal H-2B worker program, Farner says. The program Bush is proposing would exist in addition to H-2B.

The idea of the program is to encourage immigrants to come through legal channels into the U.S. and discourage illegal border crossing, Farner says. Under Bush's plan, immigrants would have to prove they don't have criminal records. 

The guest worker program is part of his proposal for immigrant reform. He also spoke of temporarily calling 6,000 National Guard members to patrol the border and better technology to catch those crossing illegally.

Senate is debating on an immigration bill, which has already passed through the house. A vote is expected by the end of May, Bush says.