Take opportunity to get immigrants into workforce

Instead of whining about amnesty and protecting able-bodied lazy Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike should work toward immigration reform and seize the opportunity to provide the spark for the economy that immigrants could provide. In the long term, the U.S. will need immigrant labor. The birthrate in this country is not keeping up with the death rate.

Right now, unemployment is low and both the construction and trucking industries desperately need workers. If we gave immigrants work permits, set up some English-language schools and provided some vocational training, you would see a boom in housing, increased tax revenue and peace at the border. We could probably even rebuild our failing bridges and highways.

The construction and trucking industries have powerful voices in Washington. To ensure that wages are decent and union workers are protected, the AFL-CIO Building Trades union needs to get involved. That's what unions do - train workers. The Associated General Contractors of America, the leader of union construction companies, should get involved in the training of immigrants. The American Trucking Associations would probably love to solve the serious driver shortage.

Little or no government funding would be needed for the training. Keep the government's hands off any training program. It would only lead to stupid regulations. This training would not be expensive, and a cooperative management-labor effort could easily fund it.

Wealthy corporations, many of them based right here in the Midwest, could help lead - and fund - the effort. We're talking about Caterpillar, John Deere, Navistar, Peter Kiewit Sons, Clarkson Construction in Kansas City and our neighbor down the road - Pepper Construction. For many years, Pepper Construction has been a leader in the Associated General Contractors. Time to step up, guys. Let's work for immigration reform.

Daniel Brown

Des Plaines