Speech #980197343

The fact is that we are dealing today with a massive. illegal bracero program. more extensive and more tragic in its consequences than anything we have encountered in the past. I do not believe it is realistic to condemn the old legal bracero program. yet reject any attempt to address todays illegal bracero program through properly controlled provisions for guestworkers. Only by extending the protections of the law to foreign workers and their families. and to the American workers who also suffer from illegal immigration. can we stop the abuses. My amendment is not intended to create a new guestworker program. but rather to reform the existing guestworker programknown as the H2 programwhich is continued in H.R. 1510. in order to meet the unique and legitimate needs of the perishable crop industry. It maintains or strengthens all the protections H.R. 1510 provides for both domestic and foreign workers under the H2 program. including requirements that employers actively recruit domestic workers. that guestworkers not be used as strikebreakers or unionbusters. that the wages and working conditions of guestworkers be comparable to those of domestic workers. and that and adequate housing allowance and workers compensation be provided. in addition to all the protections of existing labor laws.