I have carefully read the immigration bill currently in the U.S. Senate, S.744, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” and find one section so objectionable that it alone should be reason enough for Sen. Susan Collins to vote against the measure.

The bill would establish a new visa, the “W” non-immigrant visa, that, in addition to establishing a new bureaucracy, would allow up to 200,000 unskilled workers per year to come into the U.S. temporarily, allowing them to bring in their spouses and children, who would also be allowed to work. These visas would be good for three years, renewable for another three years, with no mention of what happens after six years.

Temporary? Hardly.

What is upsetting comes in a listing of what they call Zone 1 jobs, with a reference to a website, O*NET, that lists an array of unskilled jobs or, as described in the legislation, “an occupation that requires little or no preparation.” The listing includes cashiers, waiters and waitresses, janitors and, of particular concern to Mainers, hunters and trappers, fallers, logging equipment operators, fishermen and related fishing workers.

The self-styled “Gang of Eight” is desperately trying to ram this bill through the Senate before people can read what is in it.

Sen. Collins should vote against this affront to Mainers and its workers.

Robert Casimiro, Bridgton

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