A top state Democrat said she will press ahead with legislation aimed at allowing workers to cross into the United States on a temporary visa to fill the demand for labor.
“I am moving ahead with an Arizona state guest-worker program,” Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger said on Jan. 14. “You will see something in legislative form contingent upon approval by Congress.”
But her Democrat and Republican colleagues offered mixed reactions to the proposal. One view was that the immigration problem should not be addressed piecemeal and that Congress should enact a comprehensive reform package.
Another view was that a guest-worker program is acceptable, but other issues, such as border security, should be dealt with first. Lawmakers also said such a program should not lead to permanent residency.
Arzberger’s assistant leader, Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-27, said he’d rather wait for comprehensive immigration reform. “When they start doing it piecemeal, it doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.
His sentiment was echoed by another caucus member, Sen. Richard Miranda, D-13. With Congress’ inaction on illegal immigration, states are forced to deal with it by enacting a patchwork of laws across the nation, Miranda said.
“(But) I’m not sure if that’s where we should be going,” Miranda said. “I think we need to keep continuing to ask Congress to push for a comprehensive reform package.”
Sen. Amanda Aguirre, D-24, said a guest-worker program is certainly needed in Yuma, where growers provide much of the nation’s lettuce.
“I’m hoping that the federal government will wake up and look at this issue and help Arizona,” she said.
What Arzberger is setting out to do has precedent, she said. She said there have been other guest-worker programs including the federal Bracero program, which brought Mexicans to work in United States farms between the 1940s and 1960s.
Arzberger, D-25, discussed the issue at length in a previous interview with the Arizona Capitol Times. A guest-worker program is “badly needed,” she had said, adding she doesn’t want to see Arizona’s economy “hit the cellar.”
The state senator voted against employer sanctions and has expressed concern about it, particularly due to its impact on farmers. In her view, the discussion of illegal immigration changed after the passage of employer sanctions.
Now that Arizona is trying to solve a portion of the problem through the passage of what she called a “punitive law,” she said it is time the state looks at solving the problem of worker shortages by asking Congress to authorize a guest-worker program specifically for Arizona.
That would start with sending a resolution to Congress requesting the authorization. In addition, the state would have to set up the guest-worker structure, Arzberger said.
She said she has approached industries, which are now helping in her legislative effort.
The senator also said she has also contacted the office of Congressman Ed Pastor, a senior Democrat in the U.S. House. She added that U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, another Democrat, might have the “strongest interest” in the issue. 
The state could pass a state program contingent on congressional approval, Arzberger earlier said.
“My idea to begin with is that it would be possible to get a limited authorization from Congress for, say, a quota of guest-worker visas,” she said early this month. “If the state then constructed and administered a guest-worker program, and Congress would authorize a certain number of visas, then we could have a pilot program for a state, an Arizona-only guest-worker program.”
Now wielding their own immigration laws, Arizona and other states are in a position to tell Washington that since it is not doing anything about the problem, “We are going to,” she said.
But she said the federal government still needs to tackle the issue.
Miranda said he does not see Congress pushing for an immigration package this year, since it is an election year. Too much posturing would come out of it, he said.
“However, I do see a great deal of hope in 2009,” he said.
Some Republicans were receptive to the idea but wanted assurances it would contain no provision for “amnesty.”
Fountain Hills Rep. John Kavanagh, R-8, said he would support a request that Congress give Arizona a guest-worker program on the condition that the workers’ number and skills are controlled so it does not depress wages or displace workers, and that it’s a “pure guest-worker program and not a Trojan horse with amnesty hidden inside.”
For Sen. Karen Johnson, R-18, the first thing to do is secure the borders.
“We can’t have a guest-worker program when your borders are wide open,” the Mesa lawmaker said. Johnson, though, said she is not totally opposed to a guest-worker program.
“To me, the biggest problem that we have right now is a social balkanization,” said Senate Majority Whip John Huppenthal, “And right now, we aren’t assimilating. It is clear that these are foreigners in America that are not becoming Americans.”
“We have areas of our community that are like they are being nuclear-bombed by illegal immigrants, and I don’t know that a guest-worker program necessarily addresses that,” he added.