Guest Workers, Please?

Many credit Byron Dorgan (D-ND) with killing the much hated Senate immigration bill. In his quite animated speeches opposing the bill, he notes his distaste for the guest worker program, which ostensibly takes jobs away from Americans and depresses American wages.
Our own Jeff Bingaman sponsored an amendment to the bill that lowered the guest worker cap from 400,000 to 200,000, proclaiming that the former number as untested and irresponsible. His claims have no basis in reality. Prior to the bill, the government authorized an ulimited number of H-2A guest worker visas, along with numerous other guest worker visas such as H-1B. But for a moment, let us give Mr. Bingaman the benefit of the doubt. What can we expect by lowering the number of guest worker visas offered each year?
The Southwest benefits tremendously from expansive guest worker programs. Texan farmers expressed their dismay at the likely death of the guest worker program. Their comments expose one of the main guest worker fallacies. Contrary to the naysayers, guest worker programs keep businesses in America, thereby keeping tax revenue here as well. When the guest worker program runs dry, businesses pack up and move south of the border, taking both immigrant AND American jobs with them; almost half of this industry has already been lost to Mexico because of the shortage of workers. There goes the money that Dorgan and Bingaman so desparately crave for entitlement programs.
Perhaps what Bingaman and Dorgan should be saying is that guest worker programs take jobs away from labor unions. As someone who goes to school an hour away from Detroit, I highly recommend this course of action.