Thursday, January 08, 2004



Bush does a Good Thing

He's trying to extend legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. It's only temporary, granting a three-year work permit if they already have a job, but will mean that illegals will be covered by the minimum wage and workplace safety laws; they'll only be as exploited as the average American worker, rather than being in a special class all of their own.

Unfortunately, I expect that he'll have a difficult time gettting this through Congress. The US is addicted to cheap illegal labour, and some industries (such as strawberry picking) may collapse if forced to comply with even the lax working standards set in the US. And of course, noone wants to pay their maid more...

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