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Ralph Nader on Immigration2008 Independent for for President; 2004 Reform nominee; 2000 Green nominee |
A: "Immigration is a challenging issue that must be addressed in a more cohesive way. We need to address economic justice in the US and the world and recognize the basic human rights of all people," Nader says. "The long term solution to immigration is reducing the rich poor divide between the United States and other nations by peacefully supporting democratic movements."
A: Ralph Nader has stated that exploiting immigrant workers puts a downward pressure on US labor wages and standards. A $10 minimum wage would open many of these jobs to unemployed American workers. As for the H1B visas, the US should stop the "brain draining" of highly skilled people in the Third World who are desperately need to develop their own economies.
A. The first stage for our immigration policy is stop supporting oligarchs, dictatorships, authoritarian regimes that drive people to leave their native lands out of economic desperation or political repression. Lots of people from Mexico and Central America would now be in those countries, not in this country, if they had a decent chance in a democratic society to have an adequate standard of living. We cannot have open borders. That’s a totally absurd proposition. It would depress wages here enormously, and tens of millions of people from all levels, including scientists and workers, would be pouring into this country. One way is to provide work permits for people who come in and do work for short periods of time that Americans don’t want to do instead of criminalizing the border.
A. Yes, under work permits, so everything is above board. So they are not exploited. Right now, employers have the best of both worlds. They exploit workers, they make huge profits, and they escape prosecution. Farm labor, whether American or unlawful immigrants, don’t have the protection under labor laws that industrial workers have. The idea is to bring all farm labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
A: We need work permits for people who come in this country and do work, as in farm areas, instead of criminalizing the process. Second, a foreign policy that sides with workers and peasants for a change in democracy, instead of dictatorships and oligarchies, will reduce enormously the pressure of people under economic pressure and political repression from coming across the border. Most people don’t want to leave their native land. But there’s another immigration issue, which is the brain drain. Silicon Valley, trying to get more computer specialists, and others trying to get physicians from other countries in the Third World that desperately need them. We’ve got to stop being a hog for the skilled people abroad. There’s an African-American group that just started protesting Silicon Valley’s H-1B visa, pressure on Congress, saying there are African-Americans who are trained or could be trained to meet these jobs in the computer industry.