Congressman John Shadegg backs guest worker program

This is an election year, Mr. Shadegg, and your constituents are not with you on this

 On the eve of a key vote on a temporary-worker program for Arizona, the proposal has won the endorsement of a friend in a high place: U.S. Rep. John Shadegg.

“I have been a consistent supporter of a guest-worker program from . . . forever,” Shadegg said Friday. “Since when I was growing up in Arizona.”

Although he emphasized that he is unfamiliar with the details of the bill, Shadegg finds the idea “appealing,” according to a report in the daily.

“I think a guest-worker program is a step down the road to solving this problem,” he said, referring to illegal immigration.

He neglects, however, to explain how he would deal with the issue of birthright citizenship when those ‘guests’ have American citizen children while they are here as “temporary workers.”

 

Shadegg was among congressional members who backed the McCain-Kennedy-Kyl “comprehensive immigration reform,” which many regarded as granting amnesty to the estimated 30 million illegals currently in this country. That plan was derailed as an unprecedented outcry from American citizens shut down the congressional switchboard, alerting representatives to the fury such a scheme generated.

But Shadegg on Friday said a temporary-worker program should ease the strain on the border. “If people could cross lawfully, the motivation for them to cross illegally would drop,” he said.

That makes sense. If they are legalized, they will no longer be illegal.

 Likewise, if employers have a legal way to hire the workers they need, particularly in agriculture, there should be less incentive to hire illegal workers, he said.

Smell the familiar stench of amnesty here?