PenceBlog: <b>Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey touts Pence Plan in immigration reform editorial</b> - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence : 6th District Of Indiana

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey mentioned Congressman Pence's immigration plan in a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial.

Here is an excerpt:

"One such proposal is the Border Integrity and Immigration Reform Act, drafted by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. Pence's bill has something to offer both sides – an approach that eases border security concerns by giving law-abiding job seekers a legitimate path to the American workplace, and a guest-worker program that accepts that these workers are necessary and helpful to the economy. And it goes one step further by allowing the free market to shape the guest-worker program businesses need and privatizes the issuance of work permits in the process, easing the burden on taxpayers.

"Instead of government quotas, for the first three years businesses would hire as many guest workers as needed after first showing that they could not find enough American workers for the job. Rather than expanding the federal immigration bureaucracy that has failed to secure our borders, private companies would match willing workers with available jobs, improving efficiency and decreasing costs. This way, those seeking legitimate work would pay for their own visa processing, rather than burdening the taxpayers.

"With the Pence plan, workers would remain in their own country until they qualified for a visa. After clearing a background check, guest workers would receive an identification card with critical information such as where they are employed, as well as biometric information such as a fingerprint. When hiring, businesses would merely swipe this card to see if an individual is in the database and is approved to work. By implementing this system, there would be far fewer incentives to hire illegal workers and even fewer incentives for workers to cross the border illegally.

"This is not an amnesty bill. The guest-worker program is completely separate from the naturalization process. The more efficient, private-sector job-matching process would keep foreign workers from getting impatient and crossing the border in search of a better life before being granted their visas. It also avoids an ineffectual buildup of border agents – as occurred between 1993 and 2000, when the number of agents more than doubled while the number of illegal immigrants in the country increased by 4.5 million people.

"Polling done by FreedomWorks has found that this approach is more widely accepted than either the pro-amnesty or enforcement-only options. It brings together Republican voters, garnering higher approval numbers than either border security or guest-worker proposals do alone. Most important, it would allow us to remain true to President Reagan's vision of America as a 'city upon on a hill,' shining with freedom."

posted by Pence Press Office # 12:06 PM