Why We need a Guest Worker Program?

When the party’s over at the Colorado Horse Park in Parker, after all the kids have gone home to eat their candy, Hernandez will break down the folding chairs and tables he helped set up earlier. He’ll empty and clean the port-a-potties, tend to the trash cans once more, stroll the grounds looking for any loose garbage. He may shovel some horseshit, too. And then Hernandez will go back to the trailer that has been a temporary home for him and several other workers, including his 26-year-old son, since they arrived at the facility this spring. With the season finally over, Hernandez will fill his two backpacks and grab the little television he brought with him, and then he and his son will head for the bus. Forty-eight hours later, they’ll be back in Veracruz, Mexico. But if Hernandez’s God and his boss, Helen Krieble, are willing, next year he’ll return to Colorado. For years now, Krieble has hired people from outside the country to do the horse park’s worst work. She always looks for American workers first, but few seem to want these low-paying, far-from-glorious jobs. Plenty of illegal immigrants apply every year, but Krieble refuses to break the law by hiring them. For years now, Krieble has hired people from outside the country to do the horse park’s worst work. She always looks for American workers first, but few seem to want these low-paying, far-from-glorious jobs. Plenty of illegal immigrants apply every year, but Krieble refuses to break the law by hiring them. “We need a guest-worker program, badly, to eliminate all these illegal people who are coming in here,” Krieble says. “Then we wouldn’t need that damn fence that they’re building on the border.” Click here for Dan Kowalski’s read on the story.

KJ