Immigration reform advocates urge lame-duck Congress to act
Immigration reform advocates urge lame-duck Congress to act
WASHINGTON -- With control of the Congress up for grabs on Election Day, advocates for immigration reform made a last-ditch effort to brief Republican staff on the urgent need to respond to increasing labor shortages and stepped up immigration raids this year during a lame-duck session.
"In California, we're being hit heavily and they need to understand we need a solution this year," Luawanna Hallstrom of Harry Singh & Sons said after the Oct. 26 congressional briefing. Agriculture will cease to exist without a steady labor pool, especially in the global market, and states like California and Arizona businesses are struggling to stay afloat with up to 50 percent labor shortages, she said.
The labor-intensive dairy industry is also struggling and seeks a comprehensive fix to the immigrant labor issue, said Charlie Garrison of the Garrison Group, a Washington-based consulting firm that works for agriculture businesses.
The latest analyses by a group of New York lenders warned that sustained immigration raids on farm operations would "have a structural impact on New York farms," said Bob Smith of the Northeast Farm Credit. Undocumented worker raids by the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement could force the shutdown of more than 900 farms over the next two years, said lenders.
This information was "an eye-opener" for Capitol Hill staff, said Craig Regelbrugge of the American Nursery & Landscape Association's, who organized the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform briefing. They may have heard from producers but not from farm lenders, he added.
The Bush administration is expected to "crank up" workplace enforcement, and the seemingly isolated raids in New York will spread, warned Monte Lake, an agricultural employment law expert with McGuiness Norris & Williams. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security rule that would increase scrutiny of businesses that hire employees with Social Security numbers that do not match agency records will also make it difficult for employers to verify the immigration status of workers and result in further labor problems, he said. It's a Band-Aid approach and will become a litigation nightmare for businesses, said Mr. Lake.
Mr. Regelbrugge said that the coalition, which had supported overall immigration reform in the past, now says that the hardest hit industry -- agriculture -- would be "a logical place to start" for legislative reforms if Congress cannot agree on the issue. It's the only industry struggling with severe labor shortages, tightened border restrictions and crop losses, he said.
A change in political power in Congress could mean the issue gets pushed off to next year, but there are leaders in both parties very concerned about the industry's plight. Traditionally, Congress has been less likely to confront controversial issues in an election year, so chances may be slim for Congress to pass reforms when it returns in November.
But Mr. Lake said that the recent passage of the so-called fence bill could give Congress "political cover" to say it tightened enforcement first, and now it can deal with the issue of foreign workers.
"In California, we're being hit heavily and they need to understand we need a solution this year," Luawanna Hallstrom of Harry Singh & Sons said after the Oct. 26 congressional briefing. Agriculture will cease to exist without a steady labor pool, especially in the global market, and states like California and Arizona businesses are struggling to stay afloat with up to 50 percent labor shortages, she said.
The labor-intensive dairy industry is also struggling and seeks a comprehensive fix to the immigrant labor issue, said Charlie Garrison of the Garrison Group, a Washington-based consulting firm that works for agriculture businesses.
The latest analyses by a group of New York lenders warned that sustained immigration raids on farm operations would "have a structural impact on New York farms," said Bob Smith of the Northeast Farm Credit. Undocumented worker raids by the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement could force the shutdown of more than 900 farms over the next two years, said lenders.
This information was "an eye-opener" for Capitol Hill staff, said Craig Regelbrugge of the American Nursery & Landscape Association's, who organized the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform briefing. They may have heard from producers but not from farm lenders, he added.
The Bush administration is expected to "crank up" workplace enforcement, and the seemingly isolated raids in New York will spread, warned Monte Lake, an agricultural employment law expert with McGuiness Norris & Williams. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security rule that would increase scrutiny of businesses that hire employees with Social Security numbers that do not match agency records will also make it difficult for employers to verify the immigration status of workers and result in further labor problems, he said. It's a Band-Aid approach and will become a litigation nightmare for businesses, said Mr. Lake.
Mr. Regelbrugge said that the coalition, which had supported overall immigration reform in the past, now says that the hardest hit industry -- agriculture -- would be "a logical place to start" for legislative reforms if Congress cannot agree on the issue. It's the only industry struggling with severe labor shortages, tightened border restrictions and crop losses, he said.
A change in political power in Congress could mean the issue gets pushed off to next year, but there are leaders in both parties very concerned about the industry's plight. Traditionally, Congress has been less likely to confront controversial issues in an election year, so chances may be slim for Congress to pass reforms when it returns in November.
But Mr. Lake said that the recent passage of the so-called fence bill could give Congress "political cover" to say it tightened enforcement first, and now it can deal with the issue of foreign workers.
