The Immigration Act of l990 raised legal immigration by 35 percent. The Census Bureau estimated that, with this increase, our population in 2050 would rise by 92 million. In reality, the 92 million estimate was far too low. The bureau had failed to recognize the impact of the l986 amnesty.

This amnesty was an attempt to “solve” the problem of illegal migration by granting citizenship to millions of illegal workers and then cracking down on the border. The plan was a spectacular failure. Illegal immigration exploded. The newly legalized immigrants could now sponsor for immigration their extended relatives, many of whom came pouring in to join their families and wait for the next amnesty.

Congress passed six additional amnesties in the 1990s, and today we have 10 million illegal residents, with 800,000 new illegals arriving each year. Factoring in illegal immigration results in a 2050 population estimate of 420 million (current U.S. Census Bureau projection), a whopping 172 million increase from 1990. We grow ourselves with as much contemplation as bacteria in a petri dish.

The Bush administration is again proposing legislation to legalize illegal workers. To quote Bush: “any willing employer may hire any willing employee.” Under the Bush plan, most illegal immigrants may apply for a three-year guest worker visa, which is renewable, apparently without limits. And they may bring in their family.

Previous history with “temporary” worker programs clearly demonstrates that despite the plan’s intentions, these workers become permanent residents. Although not leading directly to citizenship, this “guest worker” plan is still an amnesty. Previous guest worker programs have also led to depressed wages for Americans, increased illegal migration and a high level of fraud. For these reasons President Kennedy ended the Bracero Program, our first experiment with guest workers, and three panels of government experts have warned Congress in strong language not to pass another guest worker program.

But the Bush plan is much more radical than anything ever previously proposed, and it is not limited to illegal nannies and gardeners. It would allow any employer to hire any foreign worker for any job, including high tech and professional, provided no American applied for the position. There is no limit to the number of these work visas nor a wage requirement. Employers could post any job at the federal minimum wage, claim that no American is willing to fill it, and then import a third world employee.

Outsourcing is one way to give away our jobs; but insourcing is even more breathtaking. Although Bush states that he wants to protect American workers, his plan has none of the standard provisions usually recommended. And this administration has already proven that it could not or would not protect American high tech workers from losing their jobs to foreign H1b visa holders. Enforcement of domestic worker protections would be a virtual impossibility. And from the employers perspective, that may be precisely the point: nonenforcement and legalized chaos!

So, why should we care? If the employer next door wants to hire immigrants willing to work for cheap, so what? First, it’s a question of fairness. America’s economic success is largely due to its infrastructure. Our systems of transportation, telecommunication, education and jurisprudence are the envy of the Western Hemisphere, and were paid for by generations of American taxpayers. Other countries, such as Mexico, chose not to tax themselves and suffer economically. For this reason, American taxpayers deserve those jobs, not “any willing employee.” And they deserve those jobs at a decent wage.

Secondly, low-wage foreign workers are in reality taxpayer subsidized workers. They cannot pay enough in taxes to cover the cost of the social services they use.

Third. we don’t need more workers. The employers “want” cheap foreign labor, but the flow of both legal and illegal immigrants is quite unrelated to the economy. We have 15 million Americans who want and cannot find full time employment in the midst of this jobless recovery.. And in every industry where illegal immigrants dominate the labor force, i.e. meat packing, construction, restaurants, etc. wages are stagnating or falling. Stagnant wages do not indicate there is a true labor shortage. And finally, the Bush policy will force upon us a staggering population growth in which the decision of who and how many people immigrate to this country is taken out of the hands of our elected representatives and determined exclusively by private employers and employees.

Congress passed the first amnesty in l986 for 2.7 million illegals. And we have learned a great deal by studying the impact of that amnesty. Should Congress decide to offer amnesty to possibly six million illegals, which both parties have envisioned in currently proposed legislation, then 40 million people living abroad, by some estimates, will become eligible to immigrate through our family preference entitlements. Will they patiently wait decades in order to enter lawfully? They haven’t in the past.

And what about the costs? According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the average annual income of those 2.7 million amnestied illegals in 1986 was $12, 670 a year. At $12,670 a year, a family is eligible for every means tested program we have to offer. But let’s tell the truth about the costs. The Center estimates that over a ten year period, the fiscal cost of public assistance (local, state and federal costs minus taxes paid) to this high need population plus their relatives who subsequently immigrated, amounted to $78.7 billion. (See “Measuring the Fallout: The Cost of the IRCA Amnesty after 10 years, Center for Immigration Studies.) Cheap labor is not cheap for the taxpayer.

Despite the media driven clich? of hapless illegals timidly hiding out in the shadows, illegal immigrants and their well funded advocates staged an elaborate “Freedom March” on Washington last October, which crossed the country demanding amnesty and comparing themselves to the 1960s civil rights movement. Advocates have passed legislation to provide illegals with drivers licenses, in-state tuition, and sanctuary laws. Are we surprised illegal migrants keep coming? Corporate funded immigrant advocates are continually working at the local level, under the banner of “compassion for immigrants”, to create in practice what Bush wants to establish through federal legislation: unbridled employer access to “any willing employee.”

If we don’t pass the Bush plan, what do we do with 10 million illegal immigrants? We do what Congress has been repeatedly told to do by every independent government panel of experts and labor economists to have studied illegal migration: enforce our laws, fine the employers, increase border control and deportations, and stop rewarding illegal behavior with amnesties and guest worker plans.

Jonette Christian, of Holden, a member of Mainers for Sensible Immigration Policy, can be reached at jonette@acadia.net.