Major hurdles stand in way of guest worker proposal
April M. Washington And Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News
Published August 23, 2007 at midnight
A plan by two Colorado lawmakers to create a guest worker program and open an employment office in Mexico must overcome a number of legal roadblocks, immigration attorneys and business leaders said Wednesday.
For starters, the U.S. government would have to approve the plan. And the Mexican outpost could quickly become ensnared in thorny issues surrounding U.S. immigration law.
States are not allowed to pass legislation that may interfere or impact federal immigration laws, said Donna Lipinski, an immigration attorney for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington.
"There are a lot of requirements an employer must go through to get workers," she said. "They have to provide housing and transportation. They're required to pay a higher wage than minimum wage. Then there are a limited number of visas issued each year, and they go quickly."
Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, and Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, are considering introducing legislation that would allow the recruitment in Mexico of seasonal workers for Colorado farms and other industries such as construction, ski resorts, restaurants and hotels.
"We're not trying to establish a new visa program," Tapia said. "We're just trying to find a way to expedite the existing system by using a state agency to help cut through the bureaucracy."
Business people have cheered the idea, but like the lawyers, expressed doubt that any Colorado initiative alone could cut through the bureaucracy.
Each year, the U.S. issues only 66,000 temporary nonagricultural visas - known as "H2B" visas - to immigrants seeking to work in service industries such as hotels, ski resorts, landscaping and restaurants. Ski resorts consume the lion's share of H2B visas granted in Colorado.
Efforts by Congress to overhaul immigration programs have fallen apart this year, leaving the H2B program, which is set to expire Sept. 30, in peril.
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