Thread: Farmers: Immigration Debate Misses Point

SAN DIEGO -- While Republican leaders debated immigration policy in Imperial Beach Wednesday, local farmers said an important component was left out of the discussion.

Congressional leaders said the agenda dealt only with border security, not with immigrant labor or guest worker programs, and local farmers should not be allowed to attend.

One expert said that was a big mistake.

"If you're going to be talking about major reform, you have to bring in what are called the stakeholders -- the people who really have something to say, and interests that have to be listened to," said Jeffrey Davidow, of the University of California, San Diego Institute of the Americas.


North County farmer Luawanna Hallstrom, a tomato grower in Oceanside, said there is a huge need for a guest worker program. Hallstrom said she employs 1,000 workers during the summer growing season and cannot find enough Americans to take the jobs.

"If we're really here to protect our country, and to retain the vitally strong economic country that we are and a nation of immigrants, we need to look at this things holistically, and we have to stop brushing or sweeping it under the carpet," she said.

Hallstrom also said many of her best efforts are bogged down by government bureaucracy. For example, she would be happy to provide housing for immigrant laborers, but is hampered by the fact that three government agencies must approve housing projects.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/9474660/detail.html

Well maybe we will just have to do without tomatoes, at this point I am willing to go without just about anything to turn this around.

AUTOMATE

And, btw, if tents are good enough for our Troops then they're more than good enough for the "migrants." They sure as hell aren't taking a chance on losing life and limb while picking tomatoes or lettuce!!

It's a hell of a lot better than what most of them came from............ according to the PRO-ILLEGAL crowd

Well.....when it comes to agriculture.....lets say ok. That's what I would consider a TEMPORARY WORK VISA. You come,,,work a couple weeks and LEAVE!!! Legal....monitored....and enforced. No path to citizenship. No anchor babies. No bring the family along. No free education. No free health care. Kind of like when a construction company sends the group to an out of town job site and then you come back home. They used to supply hotel rooms and meals but you couldn't bring the family along.

You hire them...house them and you are also then responsible to make sure to assist immigration and be sure they are deported back on schedual as their temporary visa states. They used to monitor temp. student visas like that. That's no more intrusive than having to document how many jobs you applied for when you collect unemployment. If they call and you didn't apply.....no unemployment. If they offered you a job and you said no......no unemployment.

That would be better than just running the streets and having everything under the table.

I am willing to grow my own tomatoes and the rest of the veggies that I eat.
Just keep the illegals in Mexico where they belong.

North County farmer Luawanna Hallstrom, a tomato grower in Oceanside, said there is a huge need for a guest worker program. Hallstrom said she employs 1,000 workers during the summer growing season and cannot find enough Americans to take the jobs.

"If we're really here to protect our country, and to retain the vitally strong economic country that we are and a nation of immigrants, we need to look at this things holistically, and we have to stop brushing or sweeping it under the carpet," she said.

I wonder if she sells crystals down in Leucadia in the off season.

Also, is there a country on the planet that isn't a "nation of immigrants"?

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

Also, is there a country on the planet that isn't a "nation of immigrants"?

Saudi Arabia?
North Korea?
Vietnam?
China?
Iran?
Libya?
Sudan?
Ethiopia and Eritrea?
Zimbabwe?

Need ten more?

Perhaps you consider Cuba and Haiti immigrant countries, but no one is immigrating there.

Since we don't know where the Garden of Eden was, you could maintain that every other country is "a nation of immigrants." I think that is a stretch.