Senate holds first hearing on Bush proposal for new guest worker plan

Published: 2004-02-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At the first Senate hearing on President Bush's proposals for a new guest worker program, witnesses gave a glimpse into just how broad the range of expectations for a new immigration law are. Eduardo Aguirre, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security, said enforcement would be the key to the success of a temporary worker program as proposed by Bush in January. A new biometric identification system for participants in the program will likely be required, he said at the Feb. 12 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In written testimony submitted to the committee, Coadjutor Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, called for scrutinizing and reforming the entire immigration system to reflect "the new reality of migration in an increasingly globalized world." Aguirre also said the program should protect U.S. citizen workers first, provide incentives for illegal immigrants to come forward and provide participants the freedom to move back and forth between this country and their homelands. But the president of the Migration Policy Institute warned that while the president's proposal is a worthy start on addressing the nation's problem of illegal immigrants and demand for their labor, "the task is daunting."

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