The Menendez Method

May 29, 2008; Page A16



Republicans in Congress are usually to blame for blocking immigration reform. So it’s worth noting that last week’s effort to fix a broken guest-worker program for migrant farm workers died at the hands of a Democrat.

Earlier this month, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Emergency Agricultural Relief Act with a bipartisan vote of 17 to 12. Introduced by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the measure would have modified the broken H-2A visa program for migrant farmhands by, among other things, streamlining the application process to encourage participation.

The amendment also would have given temporary legal status to the illegal farm workers already here if they passed a background check and met other requirements. No one wants to reward lawbreaking. But the reality is that an estimated three-quarters of the agriculture labor force is here illegally. Congress is kidding itself if it thinks Americans in an economy with 5% unemployment and better job opportunities would do this work if only these Mexicans would return home. The far more likely scenario is that growers will continue to move operations south of the border if they can’t find labor in the U.S. at a price that allows growers to stay competitive. (See this letter from Tom Nassif.)

In any case, we’re now stuck with the status quo thanks to Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who objected on the Senate floor and thus had the reform struck from a larger spending bill. His office says he thwarted the reform because the “provisions were tilted in favor of businesses while doing too little to help immigrant workers.â€