While unfamiliar to most Americans, the [existing guest-worker] program has become the template for an expanded . . . program now being hotly debated in Congress. Proponents of the plan argue that temporary labor visas give immigrants greater rights and protections while providing employers with a reliable labor force. Yet workers, labor organizers, lawyers and policy-makers say the history of the H-2 visa delivers a very different lesson. They charge that a program designed to open up the legal labor market and provide a piece of the American dream to immigrants has instead locked thousands of them into a modern-day form of indentured servitude. Congressman Charles Rangel has called guest-worker programs “the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery.”
Lean el artículo completo, que es importante, y difúndanlo.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
pero no es completo. subscription only! 😦
“Congressman Charles Rangel has called guest-worker programs ‘the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery.'”
Which is precisely why Bush is fighting so hard for this bill. He has a plantation mentality, if ever I saw one.
yes, slavery it is–sort of like doing work in prison.
*yes, i’m in austin organizing. nola burnt me out. so, here i am in tejas, a little less scatter brained but strangely missing new orleans. i guess there is never a perfect place for folks that don’t fit in anywhere…
i’ve been busy planning for the upsoming hutto vigil and such so i don’t have much time to blog but i wanted to drop you a line. i hope all is well.
Hey Luisa! This seems to be the N.O. thing – makes you scatterbrained, but is seductive. Austin/Hutto – cool, bien hecho.
CS – Yes but the program already exists, to a greater degree than we know. It is supposed to be agricultural workers only but there are a lot of them in other things, already. Working construction, in oilfields, and more. This bill is distressing. All those fences – what a waste – and English as the national language – disgusting. In addition to everything else. I hope the House turns it down.
Nezua – OOOH, it wasn’t subscriber only when I put it up there, silly Nation, I am going to fix that. Thanks for pointing it out!!!