Thread: Farmers want Congress to be careful in dealing with invaders

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Michigan farmers want Congress to be careful in dealing with immigration
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
By Sarah Kellogg
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Michigan farmers plan to use a congressional hearing on immigration reform and border security to hammer home the point that state growers need a plentiful supply of migrant workers to survive. {In other words, we don't have enough slaves}

The U.S. House Armed Services Committee comes to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County today to review security issues along the U.S.-Canada border. The hearing is one of a handful scheduled by House Republicans to highlight the importance of immigration reform.

"Our nation is so focused on the southern border with all of the problems we have down there with illegal aliens and drug smuggling, ... but we have similar challenges along the northern border," said U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township. "We need to have a comprehensive approach to securing both borders."

The hearing was to feature testimony from officers of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency and the U.S. Army about the challenges of protecting Michigan's long and circuitous water border with Canada.

While Michigan farmers weren't invited, they'll be there hoping their presence will send the committee a message that immigration reform measures must reflect the needs of the agricultural community.

"I'm worried about labor shortages and being put out of business," said Fred Leitz, co-owner of Leitz Farms near St. Joseph and chairman of the Michigan Farm Bureau Labor Advisory Committee. "If they go ahead with enforcement and employer sanctions only in the immigration bill, I'll just have to shut my operations down."{Good}

The Farm Bureau estimates that any immigration legislation that doesn't include a guest worker program allowing immigrants to enter the country to work in agriculture would cost Michigan farmers annual losses of up to $300 million.

The U.S. House and Senate have passed widely different versions of the immigration reform bill, which sets new rules governing immigration into this country and establishes guidelines on handling the estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants living here.

Last December, the House passed a bill that would levy sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers and would order the construction of a 700-mile fence along the border with Mexico.

In May, the Senate approved a more moderate reform bill that would create an agricultural guest-worker program for 1.5 million farm workers and would establish a system that would legalize many illegal immigrants through a long application process.

The bill is in a conference committee, but negotiations between the chambers were postponed by House Republican leaders who decided to hold the field hearings to gauge support for the changes.

"The hearings are fine, but at some point the Congress has got to sit down in some cooperative fashion and write an immigration law," said Rep. John "Joe" Schwarz, R-Battle Creek, who is a committee member.

"I don't disagree that we do border security first. I think that's good public policy. The National Guard down there at the (U.S.-Mexico) border is a good step forward. Fencing at the appropriate places is a good step forward. ... But then you've got to deal with the 12 million or so who are here illegally," added Schwarz, who favors a legalization process and a guest-worker program.

While some Democrats cal the public sessions "faux" instead of "field" hearings, two of Michigan's Democratic members of Congress -- Detroit Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick -- plan to attend.

Miller said this hearing has a serious purpose because so much is at stake along Michigan's border. The border crossings in Detroit and Port Huron are the busiest along the border with Canada. About $150 billion in commerce crosses the border at Michigan's three entry ports -- Detroit, Port Huron and Sault Ste. Marie, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. About 4.7 million trucks and 19.4 million passenger cars cross the three border in Michigan annually.

"In light of the gridlock, I think these kinds of hearings during the month of August are a way to break that (gridlock) a bit," Miller said. "There's really nothing wrong with government actually getting input from people around the country on immigration reform, one of the largest issues facing us."

I come from a family of farmers in the midwest. They never hired illegals although my grandparents had noticed some in the area before they passed on. Such people did their own farming with family and friends for generations. How did agriculture survive all these years without illegal immigrants? I think it is big biz again. They are buying out the small farmers who cannot make a living like they use to. Farming use to be a good honorable profession. Kind of sad isn't it?

The farms and ranched have become corporations which means they aren't "family-run" therefore the big whigs demand their cheap labor and lots of it. Of course, there are how many millions of ILLEGAL immigrants in this country and they are yelling about being short-handed so this is one big game.