Senate debating amnesty ... again

There's yet another attempt under way in Congress to grant amnesty to illegal alien guest workers. 

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has attached a measure to the Iraq spending bill that would award a five-year work visa to an estimated 1.3 million illegal immigrant farm workers and their families. It would also triple the maximum number of H-2B visas for lower skill, non-agricultural seasonal workers. The measure being pushed by Feinstein and her Senate colleague Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and will be voted on by the full Senate Wednesday.
 
Phil Kent with the Immigration Control Foundation says the country does not need more foreign workers coming into the U.S. until its guest worker programs have been reformed.
 
"The bottom line, especially in the era of 9/11, is we need to know who is here in this country. We currently don't have that. We need to do border security first," he argues. "The American people spoke very loudly last summer when we were debating more foreign workers [and] illegal amnesty, and now we're back to this debate again. Feinstein, of course, [is] a long-time open borders advocate. I think the American people are going to say, again, to both parties: 'No. Border Security first,'" Kent contends.
 
Feinstein says her bill is "emergency" legislation to address shortages of produce workers in California fields. According to the liberal Democrat, "If you can't get people to prune, to plant, to pick, to pack, you can't run a farm." But there is no need, according to Kent, to import foreign workers to fill U.S. farm jobs.
 
"Study after study has gone on to describe how the states with a high concentration of these immigrants are seeing the largest number of unemployed Native Americans ever," he notes. "And for the first time since the end of World War II, teenage unemployment is at its highest rate due to illegal immigrants stealing traditional teenage summer job slots."
 
Kent believes amnesty for illegal immigrants is up for debate again in Congress because the open borders lobby is a very vocal, well-funded "unholy alliance" that includes proponents on the "hard left" and "greedy businesses" on the right.