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Feinstein says we need the workers
California senator says 'blue card' plan would protect ag industry

Doug Abrahms and Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
March 3, 2006

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WASHINGTON - Sen. Dianne Feinstein joined the growing national debate over immigration Thursday, suggesting that legal status be given to as many as 900,000 undocumented agriculture workers.
The plan could benefit thousands of people in the Coachella Valley's $416 million agriculture industry, the largest behind tourism.

It would provide "blue cards" to 300,000 undocumented workers a year, allowing them to work in the agriculture industry while granting them legal residency, the ability to travel and legal status for their immediate families, the California Democrat said.

After three years, those cards could be converted to green cards so workers could switch industries while farmers would gain a steady source of legal labor, she said.

"I've really come to the conclusion that this industry depends on this immigrant labor force," Feinstein said at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on immigration legislation. "I call this an earned adjustment for agriculture workers."

Feinstein's announcement comes a day after Mexican President Vicente Fox said the United States will beg for such workers as more American baby boomers retire.

"I am absolutely convinced that by 2010, the United States will have a great demand for workers and laborers to sustain its economy and to sustain its population of retirees and pensioners," Fox said Wednesday.

As it is now, more than 500,000 immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally every year.

For years, farmers and workers have pushed for an immigration bill due to the high number of undocumented workers picking grapes, tomatoes and watermelons.


If Yolanda Moreno could create the immigration law, she'd write it with one word: justamente, or justly.
"It's not going to benefit the people who are already here," Moreno said from her Mecca store, Mayra's Tienda, on Thursday.

Moreno, who picks grapes as a seasonal worker in season, described the immigration bills as political. She moved to the United States from Michoacan, Mexico, 17 years ago - without the necessary paperwork.

A fair law, she insisted, would give something to those who have worked, albeit illegally, in the fields for 15 or 20 years.

"The only thing that people want when they come here is a piece of paper," Moreno said in Spanish.

North Shore resident Marta Gutierrez agreed, saying those who work in el campo can't establish themselves by buying a home or property.

Her husband, Francisco, works the tractors, spraying chemicals in the grape fields. He disagreed, saying anything that helps is good.

Growers - especially those with seasonal crops - struggle to get workers, said Suzanne Powell, vice president of Peter Rabbit Farms in Coachella. Her farm has less of a problem because it uses year-round labor, she said.

"I think (immigration reform) should be done piece by piece," Powell said. "Trying to do the whole thing is tough."

But Joe Mota, regional director for the United Farm Workers in Coachella, called on Feinstein to back an immigration bill that growers and laborers have supported. The so-called AgJobs would require undocumented workers to work 100 days a year rather than 150 days as called for in Feinstein's plan.

"For a farmworker to work over 100 days is really pushing it" because of all the travel and down time while waiting for crops to ripen, Mota said. "Why should we put more hoops for farmworkers to jump through?"

Feinstein doesn't support the AgJobs bill because she wants undocumented workers to work longer than one year to gain legal status. Her proposal calls for giving legal status to immigrants after three years.

Focus on immigration

The Senate started work Thursday on landmark immigration legislation to deal with the estimated 11 million undocumented workers who live in the United States to improve border security and to create new guest worker programs.
Lawmakers are divided over many immigrant issues. These include requiring illegal immigrants to return home after several years of working in the United States and what penalties should be imposed on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

"We are approaching a gigantic task," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I have seen virtually no agreement on anything when it comes to this immigration bill."

The single biggest conceptual dispute is over the fate of those undocumented workers now in the United States.

Specter's bill establishes a new "gold card" for undocumented people employed in the United States as of January 2004. This would provide temporary legal residency, but not put the immigrant on a path toward a "green card" providing permanent residency.

Other proposals, including Feinstein's and one backed by groups ranging from the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League and the United Farm Workers, would go further by enabling undocumented workers to adjust their status and, in time, attain U.S. citizenship without first having to return to their native countries. Opponents call such plans amnesty.

Feinstein said Thursday she wanted to prevent Specter's immigration bill from becoming a new jobs magnet that lures more people to cross the borders illegally. She also warned the committee that the initial bill perhaps addresses too many controversial issues at once.

"This is a huge bill. It is a very costly bill," she said. "It seems to me that (addressing agriculture workers) is the place to start."

Riverside County

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that of about 1.8 million people living in Riverside County, about 233,000 aren’t citizens. Some have legal status while others do not.

It’s impossible to tally local figures.

The U.S. House and Senate are considering different plans to deal with undocumented residents.

“It certainly doesn’t make sense to reward people who have broken the law,” Rep. Mary Bono said in October. “This is the first time in my over seven years in Congress that Congress is getting very serious about (immigration reform).”
Did you know

There are about 11 million undocumented workers living and working illegally in the United States.

According to the Economic Development Department: In the first quarter of 2005, an average of 3,700 workers were employed by 84 employers in agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing.

In the second quarter of 2004, a busy time for agriculture, the average number was much higher at at 6,660 workers.