Arizona guest-worker program hits snag

Phoenix - Efforts to enact the first-ever state-run guest worker program hit a snag Monday over the question of which industries should be able to benefit.
 
Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he is willing to back legislation by two Southeast Arizona legislators to allow foreign nationals to come into the state to fill certain jobs. Pearce also said that Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox and Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, have included some safeguards to prevent these temporary workers from becoming permanent U.S. residents or getting taxpayer-subsidized services.
 
But Pearce said unless two provisions are changed he will lead the charge to kill the plan.
 
Pearce's opposition could prove fatal: He not only is the author of the state's new employer sanctions law but has been able to marshal votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature to gain approval for various other immigration and border security measures.
 
Arzberger and Konopnicki filed a new version of their measure Monday in hopes of finding a politically acceptable state solution to what they say is a shortage of workers in certain industries. Efforts to expand existing federal work visas programs have gone nowhere in Congress.
 
The main hang-up, though, is how broad to make the plan. Pearce wants the program limited to agriculture. He said that is the area of the economy most in need of foreigners.
 
Arzberger, the Senate minority leader, said that restriction is unacceptable. She said there are other industries that are unable to fill certain jobs with legal U.S. workers. "We've got small businesses that are in danger of leaving the state," she said. "We've got other industries that need these workers."
 
"It's just not true," Pearce responded. He said if U.S. companies "pay the right wages they will get the right workers."
 
Pearce said he believes farmers have made a showing they are unable to get workers in a timely fashion to harvest their perishable products and cannot wait.
 
"I can't support importing workers when we're having Americans laid off," he said.
 
Pearce cited the construction industry in particular. The latest figures from the state Department of Commerce show another 1,900 jobs were lost between January and February. And the 203,900 people working in construction in February is 30,500 less than two years earlier.
 
He said the "free market economy" should be allowed to work, with the value of labor based on what it takes for companies to attract qualified people. Arzberger, however, said a company can't qualify to import foreign workers solely based on an unwillingness to pay more.
 
"They have to say that, 'We have taken these steps to locate local workforce and nobody has applied, nobody's answered our ads,' " she said. And Arzberger said this isn't designed to help the fast-food industry and others looking for low-skilled workers but wanting to keep their labor costs down.
 
She said the owner of a steel fabrication firm is offering $50 an hour for qualified workers "and he still can't get them."
 
Pearce also complained of what he sees as a loophole that could lead to more undocumented workers in this state and country. He noted the legislation allows the state Industrial Commission, which would issue ID cards to foreign workers, to revoke those cards if the person disappears.
 
That act, he said, is largely meaningless once someone is in this country and can simply walk away from a job and disappear. Pearce said employers who bring foreign workers into this country should be required to put up a bond.
 
A 2006 report by the Pew Hispanic Center found that at least one-third of the people in this country illegally actually got here legally. It concluded that somewhere between 4 million and 5.5 million current unauthorized migrants got legitimate visas to enter this country and simply never went home when the visas expired. That's out of an estimated 11.5 to 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country.
 
Another 250,000 to 500,000 had border crossing cards - permits that allow them to come here legally for short visits to shop or work - but also chose to stay indefinitely. By contrast, anywhere from 6 million to 7 million entered illegally, many through the Arizona desert, and successfully evaded the Border Patrol, the report says.
 
Even if the measure is approved it may never take effect. Arzberger acknowledged that only the U.S. Department of Homeland Security can decide who to admit to the country and whether to honor any temporary worker ID cards issued by the state. She said there have been some preliminary discussions with the federal agency.
 
Russ Knocke, press aide to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, said he could not comment specifically on the Arizona proposal. But he said the fact Arizona is pushing ahead with its own plan shows the need for Congress to approve a comprehensive immigration reform proposal, one that also deals with the labor needs of U.S. companies.
 
"Absent that reform, there's still going to be a heavy burden on our frontline personnel," Knocke said. He said the current situation results in a "tremendous economic pull for illegal workers and a push back from criminal groups as they feel the squeeze from tighter enforcement."