Guest Worker Plan’s Unforeseen Effects

Re “Mexicans See Plan for Migrants as a Good Start,” Jan. 9: This should be a no-brainer for anyone to figure out. Once the guest workers begin having children on U.S. soil, their children automatically become U.S. citizens, eliminating the need for future generations to apply for the guest worker program.

Elena Delgadillo-Bragg

Eagle Rock

*

President Bush’s big immigration plan is nothing new. In the past it was called indentured servitude. Webster’s Dictionary describes an indentured servant as “a person who binds himself by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment.” The president’s plan legalizes this for American corporations, and the government will act as the enforcer. What’s to follow that -- slavery, where employers will provide room and board for the person in return for work? The way people are trying to reason, justify and praise this new plan makes me wonder if anyone, especially the media, has ever opened the dictionary or a history book.

Martin Ostrye

South Pasadena

*

I am surprised that The Times has not explored the obvious effect of the guest worker plan upon immigration from Asia, Africa and South America. There are millions of would-be immigrants who do not have access to a land border for entry into the U.S. The Bush plan would grant access to the U.S. labor market for workers from China, Indonesia, India, Africa and elsewhere, apparently without preference or quota as to the source country.

The effect of such legislation would be far more dramatic than the normalization of millions of Latino undocumented immigrants. This measure would fundamentally change the landscape of immigration, allowing millions of low-skilled workers to fly in from around the world.

Fred Ray

Tustin