RSSKudos to tribe for looking into program for guest workers
Yakima Herald-Republic Editorial Board
While the effort may raise more questions than it answers, we still admire the initiative of a former Yakama Tribal Council member to try to deal with the problem of illegal immigration in Central Washington.
Wendell Hannigan hopes to establish a Yakama Nation guest-worker program that would require licenses or permits for nontribal members and non-U.S. citizens working on reservation lands.
The tribal council recently approved his guest-worker program and now he plans to talk to growers in hopes of getting them to cooperate.
In concept, the idea appears to have merit. Growers leasing tribal land or farming their own land could voluntarily comply with his program by submitting guest-worker information that would be compiled into a computer database.
The question becomes one of jurisdiction and coordination. For one thing, there already is a federal program, known as H2A, in which employers work with five different federal agencies to get foreign workers here if the local labor supply is insufficient. That program also includes a requirement for transportation and housing costs for guest workers and paying them a minimum wage nearly $2 an hour higher than the state's minimum wage of $8.07 an hour.
How that complex program would dovetail with a tribal program remains to be seen.
And there's the issue of jurisdiction. Immigration control is a responsibility of the federal government and there are concerns as to how this apparently unprecedented tribal effort would fit, or even if it can. The Yakama reservation is a checkerboard of tribal and nontribal land ownership, also raising the question of how far tribal jurisdiction could extend within the exterior boundaries of the reservation on nontribal land.
And finally, in our view, we see a guest-worker program as only part of the equation in achieving comprehensive immigration reform. Such reform must also include securing the southern border, providing a path to citizenship and/or legal residency the right way for those now in the country illegally AND a creative workable guest-worker program.
That's why all-inclusive congressional efforts are a much more effective way of dealing with the problem. And we expect our local congressional delegation -- most notably 4th District Congressman Doc Hastings -- to be on point, leading the charge. So far we've been disappointed on that front.
So, while the tribal effort bears a lot of scrutiny, we do applaud the fact tribal leaders are willing to try to tackle a problem that has become so politicized and polarized that it will take a new Congress -- and the new president -- to deal with it, starting in January.
Failure to enact reforms is a national embarrassment.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.
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All 'Sanctuary city, counties & States' should be held accountable and the pro-illegal immigration special interest behind it. File a 'CLASS ACTION' lawsuit in Federal Court. Because these locations are aiding and abetting illegal immigration.
If I was a wealthy person, a pro-sovereignty, anti-illegal immigrant attorney, I'd go after the Governors, Mayors and elected officials, employers who get caught. They are traitors to the true AMERICAN PEOPLE. The real citizens and the immigrants who waited for years patiently to come here.
It cost's $240.00 in my state to file a federal court case. Find an honest attorney and get the ball rolling. I for one will add my name to any judicial complaint. After that, millions of taxpayers will join in...? In San Francisco, a citizen filed a lawsuit and won against overwhelmingly odds, against the Liberal local government, against the ACLU, against the La Raza and all the other pro-illegal alien zealots.
Some Americans don't cower in a dark corner, when the word 'Racist' is yelled-out!
Incidentally, there is an estimated 37 million according to the Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544 (with an additional half-million coming every year) a massive financial impact on our economy by importing the worlds poor.
2. The Americans who are losing jobs to cheap immigrant labor. In a 1996 study, a Rice University economist estimated that illegal aliens were then displacing 730,000 American workers a year.
3. The costs to taxpayer for welfare, emergency medical services, education, law enforcement and incarceration for "illegal immigrants" and their dependents -and thousands of State, county welfare is estimated at more than a Trillion dollars.
4. The opportunities for terrorists to spend some time in Mexico, learn Spanish and infiltrate our borders.
The border fence has never built to original planned because the Democrats in a secret session, gutted funding.
"Yakama Nation guest-worker program that would require licenses or permits for nontribal members and non-U.S. citizens working on reservation lands."
Ditto Brittanicus above. How long can you, as responsible news reporters, bury your heads in the sand? Wake up and do your jobs - report both sides of the story. We, as readers, are entitled to the WHOLE story and you owe us the truth.
The part of the quotation by the editors above makes me wonder about the "non tribal members" context - such as to include all outsiders. This would require work permits for ANYONE not a member and therefore, promote the hiring of tribal members only on reservation lands, which would be discriminatory. Since it seems that Indian tribes are exempt from Federal anti-discrimination laws, and as a "sovereign" nation, they probably can do whatever they want. I applaud the effort if it complies with Federal immigration laws, but I doubt that it is the same thing.
I also believe the Editors are wrong when they call for a path to citizenship for the existing law-breakers that have illegally invaded our country. I may be one thing if the number were small - ie, not worth the fuss. But, the number is several times larger than the "official" government estimate of 12-15 million, and we all KNOW that. There is not room for that many NEW citizens, to be conferred en-mass, in this country. Furthermore, it would be wrong and a shameful, reprehensible thing to do as a demonstration of this country's moral character to reward felons for their efforts. You people are WAY off base.
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