Thread: Lawmakers Suggest Guest-worker Program for Colorado

Lawmakers Suggest Guest-worker Program for Colorado

August 15, 2007
EFE

The shortage of farm workers resulting from the Colorado Legislature's attempt to crack down on illegal immigration is prompting both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to suggest a guest-worker program at the state level.

Two Democrats representing districts in southern Colorado, Sen. Abel Tapia of Pueblo and Rep. Rafael Gallegos of Antonito, say that the state assembly has to solve the problems created by the laws it approved in 2006.

They say the legislature has to find a way to at least mitigate the unforeseen consequences of the multitude of new laws approved during the special session of the legislature last year to combat illegal immigration.

While acknowledging that immigration is a national problem, Tapia said that "the reason we passed all this immigration stuff is because the federal government didn't."

"I think we're going to end up trying to do something in reaction to the fact that we created this situation that has made Colorado one of the toughest states to be in illegally, but also legally," the senator said.

The alternative, Tapia said, could be a bipartisan proposal to create a program, either supervised by the state or delegated to a private company, that would permit Colorado companies to hire immigrant workers according to the needs of the state's labor market.

The idea, Tapia said, would be to expand a proposal that Rep. Marsha Looper, a Republican from Calhan, presented last month, which would authorize the state labor department to open employment offices in Mexico to hire Mexican workers who have their immigration papers in order.

Looper said she would present a bill based on that proposal during the state legislative session beginning in January 2008.

But she stressed that her plan includes the use of federal funds for, among other purposes, transporting workers who have been accepted to where their new jobs are located.

On the other hand, Gallegos said that Looper's proposal could have positive results even if it is never implemented.

The lawmaker thought the initiative could be a way of pushing the federal government to "do something to solve this urgent problem" and to let legal immigrants know they are welcome in Colorado.

Gallegos said that he had personally seen farmers who have cut their crops back significantly - sometimes by as much as 20 percent - because they don't foresee having enough farm labor come harvest time.

Since nobody believes the U.S. Congress will pass an immigration-reform bill this year, and to avoid problems with the 2008 harvest, Gallegos proposed ruling the 2006 state laws null and void and replacing them with measures "that make sense."

"There's room for that," he said. "We rushed a little bit into passing them because all these numbers of (illegal workers) were coming across, and so many people were on the bandwagon about illegal immigration and the expense to the state. But like anything else, we can reform that law so that it makes sense."

Colorado farmers have complained that the anti-immigrant measures passed by the state legislature last year have driven away the mainly Mexican and Central American field hands who harvest their crops.

In response, the state prison service offered inmate labor as a substitute, a proposal accepted by some Colorado farmers. EFE

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/ne ... e-news.asp

In response, the state prison service offered inmate labor as a substitute, a proposal accepted by some Colorado farmers. EFE

Use the prison service OR GO WITHOUT!!!! We are tired of YOU crying for cheap labor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colorado owes a greater debt to those potential workers who are citizens or here legally even if they are living in other states not abroad like Mexico.

Contacted my state reps concerning this issue!!!!

We have enough ''guest" worker programs. Besides, many of the these "guests" never seem to leave.