PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS December 7, 2007 (statistics updated 2/2/08) NAFBPO calls for domestic temporary worker program.  Today, the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers calls for the creation of a domestic temporary worker program. Kent Lundgren, NAFBPO Chairman, said, “It is time to bring the American worker out of the shadows. Employers in many fields claim that they are unable to obtain sufficient numbers of American workers to fill their needs. We believe their desire for foreign workers to fill that gap is misguided. There are American workers available. What employers must do is offer to those unemployed Americans the same things they are willing to give to foreign workers.” The November report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows an official unemployment rate of 4.9.0%, or about 7.5 million people. That is the figure widely reported, and used when the government wishes to report “full employment” as a measure of economic good times. It is that same figure that employers use to show there are not enough domestic workers available to fill their needs. However, the BLS also reports a less widely used figure that tells another story entirely. That figure counts all the unemployed and partially-employed, and it is 9%, about 80% higher than the “official” rate. In other words, there are nearly fourteen million unemployed or underemployed in this country. A table extracted from the BLS report showing the figures cited here, and links to the full report, are found at the end of this release. Lundgren went on to explain. “It's not that there aren't enough American workers. It's that they are often in the wrong place. An American employer should certainly have a temporary worker program if he feels the need. But he should recruit his temporary workers from among the ranks of unemployed Americans before he goes looking abroad for them. He should recruit in Michigan, not Michoacan; Iowa, not India.” NAFBPO believes employers should offer to American workers the same thing they are required to offer to foreign guest workers, that is, recruitment, paid travel to where the work is; job training, a decent wage and working conditions; decent housing or a housing allowance; some degree of medical care, and finally, paid travel home when the work is done. A Guest Worker program for foreign workers would have to meet these conditions. American workers ought to ask, then: “Why not for us, too?” NAFBPO has confidence in American employers—what they do best is solve problems. For over three decades, though, they have benefited from the easy solution to their labor needs, the illegal alien—NAFBPO does not condemn them for it; it made business sense. Now, though, we should look anew at our national situation. NAFBPO believes it is time employers stop taking the convenient path that has so many bad effects for America. Instead, NAFBPO proposes that employers and their associations, unions, and the government begin a program that will allow an employer in one part of the country to find the help he needs in another part of the country. That process will serve the employer, the worker, and the nation, well. Kent Lundgren Chairman National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (509) 961-7001   Items in color in the table are emphasis or additions by NAFBPO. BLS data is in black, and is as published.