Hollywood produced the last sequel to “Back to the Future” 22 years ago. Thanks to Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) Congress may soon fill the void with “Back to the Future: The E-3 Guest Worker Visa.” This production will star 10,500 new Irish guest workers eager to fill American jobs and supporting cast made up of unlimited numbers of spouses and children (up to age 21).
While the original “Back to the Future” may have been a pleasant trip down memory lane to America of the 1950s, the bill being (S. 1983) promoted by Schumer and Brown is far from benign. Aside from the obvious fact that there is no need for an additional 10,500 guest workers in the current economy, the legislation marks a regression back to an immigration policy for which there should be no nostalgia. The legislation is designed to benefit people of a single nationality: the Irish. Irish immigrants may have a powerful lobby, and they may flex some political muscle in New York and Massachusetts, but an immigration policy that gives preference to people based on their country of origin is a path America must never follow again.
FAIR is sharply critical of our current immigration policy, but we’ve always opposed reforms that discriminate in favor or against any group or nationality. We need to change our policies so that they serve America’s environmental, societal, and economic interests today and into the future. That means a policy where immigrants are selected on their merits, not on their country of origin or who they happen to be related to. Moreover, the bill Schumer and Brown are promoting will inevitably result in other ethnic groups demanding special visas in the future.
Our Government Relations department has put together a great summary of this bill and I urge you to take a look at it and familiarize yourself with this piece of legislation.
We’ve seen this picture before and it wasn’t a good one. We don’t need a sequel.