Recruiters corrupt guestworker program

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Recruiters corrupt guestworker program

By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago

MONTERREY, Mexico - Standing in the baking sun outside the U.S.
Consulate in Monterrey, hundreds of Mexicans wait anxiously for
temporary work visas. But even before they were fingerprinted and
interviewed for the permit, many had already paid recruiters
thousands of dollars in hopes of easing the way.

Supplying the U.S. guestworker program is a complex and sometimes
criminal network of foreign recruiters who extort money from poor
migrants and then keep them on the job by forcing them into debt or
threatening their families back home.

-snip-

All employers need to do to secure federal permission to hire foreign
workers is provide proof that no American wants the job. Once that
request is granted, companies rely on recruiters to do the rest, and
the U.S. government stands back.

Critics argue the program desperately needs oversight and protections
for both employers and workers, but demands for such an overhaul
appear to have been ignored in the Senate's tentative immigration
reform proposal.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/legal_migrant_abuse