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Aspire To The Best

04.09.08 -- 4:56PM
By Josh Marshall

Colorado's Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer says that he'd like to see our immigration policy remodeled to emulate that of the Mariana Islands, the US Pacific protectorate.

Remember, the Marianas guest worker program has become notorious for numerous instances of guest workers forced into prostitution, child prostitution, forced abortion, slave labor, beatings and various other forms of 13th century labor practices.

From the Denver Post ...

He pointed to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. protectorate that imports tens of thousands of foreign textile workers, as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally.

"The concept of prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private- sector management is a system that works very well in one place in America," he said of the islands' program. "I think members of Congress ought to be looking at that model and be considering it as a possible basis for a nationwide program."

Curious to see whether anyone raises these matters with Schaffer. This article in the Denver Post seems to have been written with little sense of the track record in the Marianas. The reporter presents Schaffer's pitch as part of the candidate's effort to take a 'moderate' stance on the immigration question.

[Special thanks to TPM Reader TR.]

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