Thread: New NY Senator Now Against Deporting Undocumented Workers

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... /302039949

Senator shifts
immigration views
GILLIBRAND'S ABOUT-FACE: Newly
appointed lawmaker now against
deporting undocumented workers
By MARC HELLER
TIMES WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
WASHINGTON — Sen.
Kirsten E. Gillibrand took all of
a week to do an about-face on
immigration issues for her new
big-city constituents,
proclaiming Monday that she is against deporting
undocumented immigrants and is open to letting
them become U.S. citizens.
Her first big test on that question, though, may
not be in the city at all, but in the milk houses and
orchards of upstate New York, where her stand
against undocumented workers has frustrated farm
groups for two years.
Two senators may bring the farm immigration
debate back to the Senate early this year, and the
Senate Agriculture Committee — which Mrs.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has just joined — could play a
background role.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vermont, has said he
wants to reintroduce a farm guest worker bill soon,
figuring it has a better chance of becoming law with
Barack Obama in the White House. Farm lobbyists
expect Sen. Dianne M. Feinstein, D-Calif., to propose
an immigration bill for farm workers, called AgJobs,
by spring, following six fruitless years of trying to
pass it. The bills would typically come before the
Judiciary Committee, but probably not without input
from members of the Agriculture Committee, which
has been a roadblock in the past.
The last attempt to advance AgJobs failed when
leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee refused
to include it in a five-year farm bill last year. Its
inclusion threatened to sink the bill.
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The timing now may be awkward. Mrs. Gillibrand
could win the support of both farmers and urban
immigrant communities by softening her stand, but
supporting a bill to expand employment for noncitizens
is riskier when upstate employers are laying
off U.S. citizens by the thousands.
Even the American Farm Bureau Federation,
which supports AgJobs, finds the timing
uncomfortable. President Obama endorsed it as a
candidate last summer, but "that was a significantly
different economy then," said Paul Schlegel, director
of public policy for the AFBF.
Immigration dogged Mrs. Gillibrand long before
she became Gov. David A. Paterson's choice to fill the
state's vacant U.S. Senate seat. During a 2007 debate
on immigration policy, the New York Farm Bureau
and others in favor of giving undocumented workers
a chance to stay on farms tried in vain to convince
Mrs. Gillibrand to join their cause — even though it
was the Farm Bureau's top legislative priority in
2007, and she had been popular with farm groups.
Mrs. Gillibrand, in fact, was more strident on the
issue than most of the Republicans in the state's
House delegation, who generally lined up to
cosponsor the AgJobs bill. Mrs. Gillibrand declined
to join them, taking the view the 12 million or so
undocumented immigrants in the United States —
many of them working on farms — should not be in
the country at all.
Anything short of deportation, she said at the
time, would amount to "amnesty, " which she told
reporters again last week she opposes.
By Monday, however, the headlines suggested
otherwise.
Mrs. Gillibrand emerged from weekend meetings
with Hispanic leaders to tell a New York City
television news station for Spanish speakers she will
ask President Obama to immediately halt
deportations, and she now supports a path to
citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
A spokeswoman for Mrs. Gillibrand did not
immediately return a message Monday seeking
comment on the immigration issue and whether she
would now support AgJobs legislation.
AgJobs would affect the dairy industry,
particularly, by opening the H2A seasonal visa
program to year-round dairy farm workers for the
first time.
Immigrant labor is now an important part of the
dairy industry upstate, employing thousands of
workers, farm experts say. Farms in Jefferson County
alone employ as many as 500, the Jefferson County
Agricultural Development Corp. estimates, while
some 25,000 immigrants work on farms of all types
across the state.
The apple industry especially relies on immigrant
labor, without which New York's apple crop could not
be picked, the New York Farm Bureau has said. New
York ranks second in apple production nationally,
behind Washington state. Farm experts say many of
those workers are probably undocumented, and the
threat of raids and tough enforcement scares away
legitimate immigrant labor, as well.
Indeed, Mrs. Gillibrand's stance against
undocumented workers was all the more striking
because her congressional district included one of the
leading apple-producing parts of the state. But the
district is also overwhelmingly Republican in voter
registration, and she said constituents were clearly
against giving those workers a chance to stay here.
The senator has said she supports a guest worker
program for newly arrived workers, which would
involve a period of time in the United States, then a
period of time in their home country before returning
to this country temporarily. She has said the period
of time here would have to be long enough to be
useful to farmers.
Proponents have proposed varying versions of the
timeline. Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont
Manor, last year proposed legislation to allow for a
three-year period of admission, to be followed by a
possible three-year extension, with no requirement to
leave the United States before an extension.
Five upstate lawmakers, both Democrats and
Republicans, signed on, but not Mrs. Gillibrand.

I guess someone passed her some of the kool aid.

Originally Posted by Justonehero

I guess someone passed her some of the kool aid.

or a whole wad of money ... these politicians are bought and paid for

I want to know WHO changed her mind and HOW was it done?

Another political traitor who has no business anywhere near a position of leadership, representing AMERICA OR HER CITIZENS!

What a disgrace! Talk about having no character, principles or values!!!

Welcome to ALIPAC dmeische and good post as well

Welcome dmeisch! We are supposed to put a link at the bottom of articles we post. Here's the link:

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... /302039949

She obviously was promised something for a dramatic change in her core values concerning Illegal immigration. Shes going to get alot of heat in the next few days.