U.S. Has Eight Visa Programs that Allow Over 600,000 Workers into the Country

CNN Lou Dobbs - video:

President Bush Says We Need More Guest Worker Programs So We Can Have Border Security

In defending his grand compromise and call for comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush frequently says we need a guest worker program in order to secure our borders. Not only is that tortured logic, but we already have a guest worker program -- at least eight guest worker programs already, together allowing more than a half million people to come here and work every year on visas. According to the State Department, the biggest of these programs is the H visa program. More than 300,000 H visas, in fact, were issued last year, including H-1B visas that allow American companies to replace American workers with cheaper paid foreigners. H visas are also used for nurses, farm workers and other so-called unskilled workers, if you can call a nurse unskilled. More than 600,000 so-called temporary guest worker visas issued just last year alone. It is not known how many of those people working here under those visa programs have overstayed their visas. So you wonder why the president thinks we need a guest worker program.