It was just a throw-away quote on NPR -
some Republican House Member from Florida (Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana) wanted to offer a "compromise." His idea? Let "private enterprise" take over issuing the temporary worker "orange cards" and force everyone wanting one to leave the country to get it.
Why private enterprise? Because it is "more efficient." I suppose if you believe replacing $20,000/year soldiers with $200,000/year private security guards saves money, it all makes sense. Besides, private enterprise is more efficient at returning all that government cash back into congressional re-election campaigns...
Wouldn't it be nice to see somebody start challenging this bizarre idea that "private enterprise is always more efficient than government?" Tell it to Enron's shareholders... more + poll below
Doesn't this sound like corruption waiting to happen? US Government employees accepting bribes while working overseas can be prosecuted - but not private companies run by foreign nationals. Then, of course, there's the giant profit motive of selling orange cards to folks currently here illegally. Care to bet how many human smugglers would be signing up for that one?
Meanwhile, al Qaeda has lots of oil money - I'll bet they'd be happy to buy some cards or even set up some of those private enterprise immigration card vendors. Considering how the Bush Administration's hiring skills are, what with their inability to check résumés, hiring limo services run by criminals to transport Homeland Security honchos, and naming guys with hooker/poker game tendencies to run the CIA, all it would take would be $10,000 to the Republican Nat'l Committee and Osama himself could get hired by Homeland Security.
Bottom line - now that the Marianas scam has bottomed out, this looks like a new scam seeking folks eager to get into the "selling out your country for a fast buck" game called the Bush Administration Way
Update [2006-5-23 23:30:28 by RepubAnon]: here's the program:
Hoping to narrow the gap between Senate and House Republicans on this issue, the leader of the House conservative caucus announced a bill that would allow the illegal immigrants to participate in a guest worker plan, but would not grant them permanent residency or citizenship.
The measure, sponsored by Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, would require the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants to leave the country to apply for a slot in the program, which would be administered by private employment agencies licensed by the American government.
(Source: New York Times Senate Backs Job Verification for Immigrants, May 24, 2006 (emphasis added)