Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

Within the next few weeks, Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake plans to introduce legislation aimed at creating a guest worker program he says will all but end the constant flow of illegal immigrants along the border and the deaths that often accompany them.

Critics of the proposed legislation call it a poorly veiled attempt to provide amnesty to the millions currently living in the United States illegally.

Flake, a Republican who represents the 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he is putting the finishing touches on a proposal that would give every one of the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States a chance to apply for the program, plus allow for up to 300,000 work visas to be handed out per year to foreigners who want to legally work in the United States.

Coincidentally, officials estimate between 250,000 and 300,000 people illegally enter the United States from Mexico each year. Flake also said he would like to see a worker in the program be allowed to stay for two years.

"If you have the legal framework for people to come north, I think the market does a good job of regulating the flow," he said.

Under Flake's proposal, workers would be able to apply for the program without being restricted to a specific employer or type of job.

That differs from the current visa program where employers apply for a permit through the Immigration and Naturalization Services. After being granted a visa, workers are restricted to a specific industry and employer.

The idea of creating a guest worker program is not a new one. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States and Mexico had openly discussed establishing some sort of program.

But after the attacks, Flake said the talks stopped as America began to focus on Homeland Security and the potential for war with Iraq.

Flake said participants in the program would be issued a biometric card that brings with it several security measures such as fingerprints.

The tentative fee for the card in FlakeÇs proposal is set at around $1,000 which the congressman said is comparable to what many illegal immigrants currently pay to enter the country.

"We hear the cost of hiring a smuggler is about $1,200," Flake said.

Flake said the fee paid for the card would give the government enough funds to administer the program and create a pool of money that would help local communities deal with illegal immigration.

One example he used was either reimbursing hospitals for the millions they lose every year while providing services to illegal immigrants or insuring those in the guest worker program.

"That's one of the items we are still looking at," Flake said.

Flake said his program would not address amnesty for illegal immigrants or affect their citizenship status in any way.

But Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said allowing anyone already in the country illegally to apply for the program is exactly amnesty.

FAIR is a Washington-based nonprofit group that works to curtail immigration.

"If it walks like an amnesty and quacks like an amnesty, it's probably amnesty," said Mehlman, adding his group will most likely lobby against Flake's proposal.

Standing in a city park in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., recently, Mario Villa, 52, and Miguel Pacheco, 27, said they would happily apply for the program if it meant avoiding the 18-hour, all-night, hike through the desert and the cat-and-mouse game they play with Border Patrol agents.

Each said they have illegally crossed the border in the San Luis area several times to do a variety of jobs, from construction in Phoenix to picking lettuce in Yuma County.

The men talked about previous crossing experiences while they waited for the sun to go down, at which time they planned to gather up their bags filled with beans and clothes and head for the United States.

"Obviously we would rather walk through the gate," Villa said, pointing toward the U.S. Port of Entry in San Luis, Ariz.

Before Villa and thousands of others can take one step toward legal migration, though, Flake said he has to get the support of his peers in Congress.

Flake said even the most vocal critics of a guest worker program can't deny that lives are being lost along the border.

According to numbers provided by Flake's office and the Border Patrol, 146 illegal immigrants died while crossing the Arizona border in 2002, including 12 in the Yuma Sector of the Border Patrol.

"It's the federal government's duty to secure the border," Flake said. "But nonetheless, anybody with a heart is sickened when they see that happening, and if you have a legal mechanism for people to enter the country you won't have it at the scale you do now."

Mehlman said the idea that a federally sanctioned program will curtail the flow of illegal immigrants is wrong. On the contrary, he said, once people are allowed to obtain a temporary working permit after the enter illegally, the number of people crossing the border will grow.

"That encourages people to go out there and risk their lives," Mehlman said.