Rep. Mike Pence (R–Ind.) chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, so perhaps the Angry Right won’t instantly suspect him of being a Mexican agent. OpinionJournal Political Diary (only $3.95 a month for interesting stuff every business day) quotes his admirably commonsensical opinions:
While he supports better border enforcement, Mr. Pence also recognizes there is a hunger for a solution that goes beyond that. This week, he will speak at the Heritage Foundation on a proposal to harness the expertise of the private sector to bring order to the unskilled labor market that attracts so many Latin American workers.
“I believe that the government has to be imaginative and reach out to private companies like Kelly Services, which place people in jobs everyday, and learn from them,” he told me. He says Helen Krieble, a Colorado rancher and entrepreneur who has long employed legal immigrants, has convinced him that, even with better enforcement, the government needs to do a better job placing legal workers in needed job slots.
Ms. Krieble’s idea, which is explained at www.krieble.org, would have U.S. immigration and homeland-security agencies work with private companies to set up offices inside Mexico and other countries. Rep. Pence said the end result should please both supporters and opponents of immigration. “In three-to-five days, for a fee paid by the applicant, the companies would confirm that there’s a job waiting for that person in the United States,” he says. “They would confirm the person had no criminal history, and then they would issue the kind of biometric ID that the president talked about.”
A recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies shows that Americans do believe in a balanced approach. By 51% to 41%, a majority believes that a well-regulated guest worker program would do more to ensure border security than increasing law enforcement. “Border control would be easier and more feasible if the vast majority of people now crossing the border illegally wouldn’t be there because they either couldn’t get hired or they are part of a safe, practical legal guest worker program,” says Ms. Krieble.
Rep. Pence admits the entire idea may be too sensible for the current immigration debate, but there’s always next year after the politicians have finished their posturing and an election isn’t imminent.
Naturally I’m attracted to ideas that are similar to my own. It’s good to know that more important people are, too.
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