Mr. Lee's Response to Comments on His Article, "PROBLEMS WITH PRESIDENT BUSH'S GUEST WORKER PROPOSAL" Published in Immigration Daily of 3/6/2006

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

Dear Editor:

Thanks to Mssrs. Hart and Alexander for their comments (03/03/06 ID) on my article (03/01/06 ID). I don't believe the word "useless" in describing a guest worker program was ever in my lexicon (see Hart). However, such a program without more would not solve the major problems of border security, future massive US manpower shortage, and what to do with the 9-14 million undocumented in this country. I would liken it to putting one hose on a four alarm fire. There are also many questions concerning the Administration's resolve and ability to carry through such a program and whether this is another piece of political theater to attract Hispanic votes for the midterm elections. Studies show that immigrant aliens contribute much more in tax dollars than they take away in benefits (see Alexander). Alan Greenspan stated that immigrants including undocumented workers pay $70B in taxes while only using $43B in services. Perhaps the small number of financially overburdened states and communities would be more accepting of illegal aliens if Washington were to more fairly share tax revenues in heavily alien states and local communities rather than unfairly allocating more of these revenues to states without significant alien populations. Second, many countries in the world with continuing leadership evolve long-term plans which may in the short term cause suffering for their citizens for the prospects of a brighter future. A major difficulty in our otherwise wonderful democratic process is a lack of steady direction and leaders' settlement for short-term fixes for fear of voter outrage. Looking at the looming crisis of a 30M+ shortfall of workers in the near future, a responsible Administration and Congress should propose workable solutions and prepare its citizens for possible dislocations and pain in the short-term future if there's to be a true answer.

Alan Lee, Esq. New York, NY

To see original comments, click here and scroll down to "Letters" section.

† The author is a 26 year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2006 Alan Lee, Esq.

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