Thread: Kansas Seeks Waiver for Undocumented Workers to Solve Farm Crisis - AMNESTY

Kansas Seeks Waiver for Undocumented Workers to Solve Farm Crisis

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File - In this May 10, 2011 file photo, field workers pick onion bulbs on a Vidalia onion farm in Lyons, Ga. Georgia and Alabama have approved laws that have tough enforcement provisions that farmers say are scaring migrant workers away from the states. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) (AP2011)

TOPEKA, Kan. – In a move that reflects the growing agricultural labor shortage across the country, Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman has decided to seek a federal waiver that would allow Kansas dairies and feedlots desperate for workers to hire undocumented immigrants.

According to a report by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Rodman has met several times with officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about a pilot program that would place employers and undocumented immigrants in a special state-organized network. The goal is to create a legal, straightforward manner of organizing existing immigrant labor.

So far, Homeland Security has neither approved nor rejected the idea.

"I need a waiver," Rodman said. "It would be good for Kansas agriculture."

Now, a coalition of business interests is preparing to push the idea in Topeka. Details are expected to emerge this week about a bill establishing the outline of a state-managed worker program. Operating in cooperation with the federal government, it would link sponsor companies with undocumented immigrants who have been in Kansas a minimum of five years and have no criminal background. One potential candidate would be a person who entered Kansas on a visa that expired years ago.

The employees and employers would pay fees that would support the program, ensuring the state incurred no oversight cost.

Mike Beam, senior vice president of the Kansas Livestock Association, said the objective was to secure a reliable, regulated labor pool to the state's businesses. Despite the recession, there are counties in rural Kansas with unemployment rates half the state average.

"This will be very limited," Beam said. "It would be an agreement between the state of Kansas and Homeland Security."

Other groups backing the idea include the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and local chamber affiliates, the Kansas Farm Bureau and building industry organizations. This is the same coalition that contributed in the 2011 session to blocking a version of the Arizona immigration measure compelling police officers to detain individuals they think might be undocumented.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped craft the Arizona law, has vowed to work in the 2012 session to obtain passage of a Kansas law requiring employers to deploy the federal E-Verify system to establish the credentials of new hires.

"If there were fewer jobs illegal aliens could obtain unlawfully and get away with it, fewer illegal aliens would come to Kansas," he said.

Sen. Mark Taddiken, a Clifton Republican and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the state's labor force needed to be solid to allow agricultural production to expand.

"They're having trouble finding people," Taddiken said. "The agricultural sector is looking for reliability."

Rodman, the state's agriculture secretary, said he would leave promotion of state legislation to others and would focus on making his case to Homeland Security.

"I told them to let me do something out in western Kansas," said Rodman, who has traveled as secretary to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in an attempt to recruit people interested in agricultural careers in Kansas.

That shows promise, but the payoff would be slow. "Let me fix the system a little bit," he said.


Source: Kansas Seeks Waiver for Undocumented Workers to Solve Farm Crisis | Fox News Latino

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APNewsBreak: Group reveals Kansas immigration plan

Businesses would have to pay a fee of up to $5,000, plus an additional $200 for each worker, to tap the labor pool, and they'd have to agree to follow federal labor standards. Money raised by the fees would go to community groups to help finance English lessons, immunizations and other services.

cbsnews.com

(AP) TOPEKA, Kan. — A coalition of business groups will propose Kansas start a new program to help some illegal immigrants remain in the state so they can hold down jobs in agriculture and other industries with labor shortages, coalition representatives disclosed Tuesday.

The proposal is likely to stir controversy in the Legislature and divide the Republican majority, some of whose members have argued Kansas needs to crack down on illegal immigration. Representatives of the business coalition, which includes agriculture groups and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, provided a draft copy of their proposed legislation to The Associated Press ahead of its formal introduction in the House and Senate.

The coalition spelled out details of its proposals only days after state Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman said he would seek a waiver from the federal government to help agribusinesses. But the coalition's representatives said their proposal would make such a step unnecessary.

Instead, the new program proposed by the groups would create a pool of immigrant workers businesses could tap after the state certifies a labor shortage in their industries. The state would support individual workers' requests from the federal government for authorization to continue working in the U.S., despite not being able to document that they are in the country legally.

"The key is, these are people that are in Kansas," said Allie Devine, a Topeka attorney and former state agriculture secretary who lobbies for business owners on immigration policy. "We're asking to keep those people here, let them remain and let them work."

But the proposal is not part of Brownback's legislative agenda, and he's not supporting it, spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said. Asked about Rodman's earlier comments, Jones-Sontag said, "You need to talk to him." A spokeswoman for Rodman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment or an interview.

State Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican who's pushing proposals to crack down on illegal immigration, called the business groups' plan "amnesty" for such immigrants. He said the state — working with Democratic President Barack Obama's administration — would give legal status to immigrants "by fiat" despite their being in the U.S. illegally.

"It should make some people mad," Kinzer said. "A proposal like that, I think, is unlikely to make it through the legislative process."

The proposed program would be for illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. at leave five years and have committed no more than one misdemeanor, aside from traffic infractions. The immigrant also would have to agree to work toward English proficiency. Essentially, coalition members said, the federal government would make their deportation a low priority while they continue to work in the U.S.

Businesses would have to pay a fee of up to $5,000, plus an additional $200 for each worker, to tap the labor pool, and they'd have to agree to follow federal labor standards. Money raised by the fees would go to community groups to help finance English lessons, immunizations and other services.

The proposal comes months after the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services enacted a new policy Oct. 1 that reduced or denied food stamps benefits to hundreds of U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Legislators also are pursuing several proposals to crack down on illegal immigration.

Kansas' secretary of state, Kris Kobach, a Republican and a former law professor, is known for advising officials in other states about cracking down on illegal immigration. He helped draft tough laws in Arizona and Alabama.

Source: APNewsBreak: Group reveals Kansas immigration plan - CBS News

kctv5.com
The Associated Press
Updated: Jan 31, 2012 5:35 PM EST

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A Kansas Department of Agriculture spokeswoman says talks between Secretary Dale Rodman and federal officials about illegal immigrant workers were informal only.

Spokeswoman Chelsea Good said Tuesday that Rodman has met several times with U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials about labor shortages in Kansas agriculture.

But Good says the Kansas agency has not made a formal request for a federal waiver that would let businesses in Kansas hire illegal immigrants.

Rodman told The Topeka Capital-Journal last week that a program allowing illegal immigrants to continue working in Kansas would be good for agriculture.

But Gov. Sam Brownback's office later said the idea did not come from the administration. A coalition of business groups plans to push for state legislation on the issue.

Kan. ag agency downplays talks about immigrants - KCTV 5

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

kctv5.com
The Associated Press
Updated: Jan 31, 2012 5:35 PM EST

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A Kansas Department of Agriculture spokeswoman says talks between Secretary Dale Rodman and federal officials about illegal immigrant workers were informal only.


Kan. ag agency downplays talks about immigrants - KCTV 5

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They are so close to passing a national blanket amnesty for over 20 millions illegal aliens, they don't even know if they have passed it yet.

The illegal aliens sure keep close tabs on amnesty though ... they know Obama will use it as the ace up his sleeve for getting reelected.

I think the GOP know it too...

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