It's Time to Support Immigration Reform
By Kevin Rogers, President of the Arizona Farm Bureau
There is an old adage that says one should neither watch the making of sausage or the making of a law. For me, that suggestion is late on both counts. My kids are involved in 4-H with hog projects, so I know plenty about sausage. And when it comes to watching a law take form, I have had my experience with farm bill legislation, air quality legislation and some local land use issues, just to mention a few.
Making good law is also the art of leadership, moving the extremes to workable compromise. And yet, no issue has challenged our Farm Bureau organization, the agricultural community and me as much as the immigration reform issue.
As I have said before, Arizonans, including our agricultural community, deserve to be upset over the failure of our current border and immigration policies.
Along with many state and national political leaders, we have stated repeatedly that immigration reform must include appropriate border security and interior enforcement to reduce the threat of terrorists entering the country and other illegal activity.
Here is where making sausage starts and consensus falls apart.
In 1986 we granted amnesty that was incomplete, we abandoned enforcement, delegated it to employers without the necessary tools, and we made no meaningful changes in visa and temporary worker programs. It was a huge mistake not to account for our future and growing labor needs. On top of that, without the proper structures, we failed to act in the following years as we experienced unprecedented immigration, both legal and illegal.
It was a prescription for disaster and now any effort at reform is doubted and labeled as “amnesty.”
Lost in the argument is that if America is to remain competitive in the world marketplace we must have foreign workers — always have, always will. This is uncomfortable for many, but it is the cold hard facts of a world that is seeing more countries competing for consumer dollars. American agriculture is more at risk than any other U.S. industry. Every country, developed or undeveloped, has agriculture. These countries want to export a portion of their agricultural production in order to bring these consumer dollars to their economy.
Our agriculture is diverse. Each segment from livestock and dairy, to field and specialty crop production, have different and distinct labor needs. As producers, we need options when it comes to worker permits. Farmers, who are on the border, need a commuter program for workers who go home to Mexico at the end of the workday. Farmers needing seasonal labor should have available to them an expedited and simplified H2A process that is specifically designed for agriculture. And, farmers need to be allowed to hire any worker who is authorized to work in this country without being forced to use the H2A program.
This country’s immigration policy is broken and it is time for Congress to get it fixed. The frustration is so high in Arizona because of inaction by Congress that we as employers, will likely have to deal with a state statute on employer sanctions passed by the legislature. Also, Arizona voters are willing to pass anything that looks or smells like it might address the problem, even if it does not.
Your frustration must be as high as mine is. If our nationally elected officials do not deal with this issue now, America will see a steady decline in domestic production of fruits, vegetables and ornamentals. What people fail to understand is that today agriculturalists are paying all-time high prices for our workers. As a result, it will not be long until we will be more dependent on food produced in other countries where it can be grown and processed cheaper and then shipped to our local grocery stores. I do not believe we, as Americans, want this to happen with an American food supply that is the safest, most secure and healthiest in the world.
But hope may be on the horizon. The recent bi-partisan attempt by the U.S. Senate to reform immigration is a good sign.
Please join me in urging Congress to pass comprehensive reform that secures the border, gives us a workable and adequate visa program and allows the millions of illegal workers already in this country to come out of the shadows and supply the labor this country needs.
Key Words: Immigration reform in Arizona
