U.S. Will Look To Mexico For Immigrants Within A Decade Due To Labor Shortage, Expert Says

The Huffington Post
By Roque Planas
April 10, 2013

Those concerned about the 11.1 million undocumented immigrants who come to the United States from around the world may one day miss a time when the U.S. easily attracted workers from Mexico.

As the baby-boom generation sails into retirement and the Mexican birth rate decreases, the U.S. will have a shortage of both skilled and unskilled labor, and will have to turn to other foreign countries to meet demand, policy analyst Shannon O’Neil writes in her new book Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico the United States, and the Road Ahead.

“This combination may lead to a rapid turnaround on this hot-button issue [immigration],” O’Neil writes. “Desperate to close the gaps in America’s workforce, in the next decade we may be urging Mexicans to come to the United States.”

The so-called "gang of eight," a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators, is putting the final touches on a comprehensive immigration reform proposal. The bill, expected to be submitted soon, will likely include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, though critics want assurance that the federal government also will better secure the border. Read more. 

Canada-Mexico Guest Worker Program Touted as Model for U.S. To Replicate

Fox News Latino

January 25, 2013

As the country's leaders gear up once again to overhaul the immigration system, a heated debate is expected on the creation of a guest worker program allowing future temporary immigrants to come legally.

Politicians will take up various versions. Some say all they need to do is look north for an ideal model.

Canada has had a guest worker program with Mexico since 1974. Though it’s not without critics, it’s generally hailed as well organized and worthy of being replicated.

The process starts with Mexico screening potential workers on their education, health and skills. To ensure that they don’t overstay their employment visa, the Canadian government takes out part of the workers’ pay and puts it into a special fund — workers get the money when they return to Mexico. 

Canada also requires that approximately 16,000 yearly recruits be married — but only they, not their spouses and children, can travel to Canada.

On some level, say those in industries that use foreign labor, Canada’s program should not be difficult to duplicate in the United States. But an important hurdle to its smooth implementation, they say, is the bitterly divisive nature of the ever-thorny immigration debate — it has become so politicized that there’s little to no room for compromise. Read more. 

Obama Will Seek Citizenship Path in One Fast Push

The NY Times: Julia Preston
January 12, 2013

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to push Congress to move quickly in the coming months on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, senior administration officials and lawmakers said last week.

Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, the officials said, resisting efforts by some Republicans to break the overhaul into smaller pieces — separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant farmworkers or highly skilled foreigners — which might be easier for reluctant members of their party to accept.

The president and Democrats will also oppose measures that do not allow immigrants who gain legal status to become American citizens one day, the officials said.

Even while Mr. Obama has been focused on fiscal negotiations and gun control, overhauling immigration remains a priority for him this year, White House officials said. Top officials there have been quietly working on a broad proposal. Mr. Obama and lawmakers from both parties believe that the early months of his second term offer the best prospects for passing substantial legislation on the issue. Read more. 

Immigration Politics: Farmers still fighting for immigrant guest-worker program

MiamiHerald.com: "California and Southern farmers renewed their case Thursday for some kind of an agricultural guest-worker program, but they're sailing against the wind. ... the farmers this year face excruciatingly long odds as they seek a guest-worker goal that's eluded them since at least 1995. Still, they lobby on.

"You have to be optimistic, don't you?" said Modesto, Calif.-area farmer Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "Stranger things have happened." Wenger joined H. Lee Wicker, deputy director of the North Carolina Growers Association, and Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black in urging a House panel to overhaul an existing worker visa program and boost farmers' access to foreign labor. Without the fix, they say, growers' problems will proliferate.

"Experience shows us there is no realistic prospect of a domestic work force for agriculture," Wenger told the House subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement. "We in California have learned the hard way that few Americans seek agricultural jobs."" read more

Immigration - Politics: Lawmaker Offers Plan to Lure Migrant Farm Workers

NYTimes.com: "A leading Republican lawmaker has proposed creating a program to bring 500,000 foreign migrant farm workers to the United States each year, responding to an outcry this summer from American farmers who said shortages of legally authorized labor were imperiling their crops."

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