At a LULAC Convention on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Hispanic advocates discussed with Presidential Candidate, Obama their wish for a “comprehensive package that offers a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Mr. Obama explicitly promised to enact such a measure by the end of his first term as president”, as reported in “Immigration comes to fore for duo”, Dallas Morning News – July 9, 2008. Was it a sincere promise, or was it political rhetoric in order to attract the large Hispanic voting public? It’s hard to say; according to the PewReseachCenter “Obama carried (in the November 2008 Presidential election) the Latino vote by sizeable margins in all states with large Latino populations”. President Obama is back on Immigration Reform – and it’s about time, you can read about it in today’s Dallas Morning News: “Obama: It’s time to tackle immigration” – weird that he waited until he was on the campaign trail again to bring it back up. Is it sincere or is it political hype for votes? I have not a clue that is for you all to decide at election time.
Here is what I know - Immigration is the world I live in every day. The heartbreak of it for both the small business (and farm) owner that counts on their temporary workers for the profit part of their business, the domestic workers – that know without the temporary workers they would not have a job to go to, and finally - the LEGAL temporary non-immigrant worker that knows their only chance of making a better life for their family is his temporary U.S. job. I know what I believe – I fight for it, see it, hear it, eat it, breath it and pray for it every day of my life.
In the Presidents Inaugural speech on January 20, 2009 he said “And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system -– to secure our borders and enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.” His speech was approximately 7400 words – and he devoted 39 of those words to “our broken immigration system”. Let me focus on his words for a moment - “ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation”. What was he talking about – those I know that have been playing “by the rules” are punished by being forced to jump through ever shrinking hoops that are about to be rimmed in fire. Many Small Business men and women that are playing “by the rules” are not flourishing-they cannot “contribute to our economy and enrich our nation” because they are barraged with more and more burdensome and onerous regulation.
Little has been said or done in regards to Immigration Reform since President Obama’s inauguration – a lot however has been done and is proposed to be done to dismantle the one and only means by which non-agricultural small business owners can hire LEGAL non-immigrant workers. The H-2B program is under attack, yet again - ( Summary of Notice of US Dept. of Labor NPRM). I hope you will take the time to comment on this proposed rule change in support of your law abiding small business owning neighbors, families and friends that count on the program for their short term labor demands. These are the front line businesses that face uneven playing fields in competition when bidding against like business that hire illegal labor (estimated at between 11 and 20 million). The deadline to comment is May 17, 2011, your comments make a difference please visit this website and make a statement in support of your neighbors. Ask that the current H-2B program be left in its current condition.
Thank you, Lori
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