Thread: CA-OPINION: U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform

OPINION: U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform

But Feinstein is wise to keep issue in front of Congress while broader support builds.

Fresno Bee
Published online on Sunday, May. 17, 2009

We have long supported federal legislation to ensure an adequate supply of labor for agriculture, but our goal is to have a guest-worker program as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We hope that bill gets through Congress this year, allowing President Barack Obama to fulfill a campaign promise to solve the nation's immigration mess.

Supporters of a guest-worker bill for agriculture are hoping the farm labor shortages can be resolved through separate legislation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has introduced such a bill, but it's questionable whether that measure has the support to get through Congress on its own.

Feinstein's latest bill would legalize more than 2 million illegal immigrant farmworkers and their family members. Similar bills have been introduced since 2003 without success.

While Feinstein has been persistent, the best opportunity to solve the agricultural labor problem would be as part of a comprehensive immigration bill that deals with all aspects of the immigration problem.

Obama has given mixed messages on his commitment to immigration reform this year. He is reportedly pursuing a "working group" to study the issue prior to introducing reform legislation, but it's unclear whether he will pursue a bill this year because of other issues, including the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Feinstein's Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, or AgJOBS, is supported by the United Farm Workers of America and farm groups, including the California Farm Bureau Federation.

But the bill has significant congressional opposition, including border-security advocates.

Feinstein said there's a "farm emergency in this country," and it's been mostly caused by a lack of farm labor. That must change, she said.

We agree with her assessment, but we remain skeptical about whether AgJOBS has the support to get through Congress. But Feinstein is wise to keep this issue alive in Congress while support builds for a comprehensive solution.

Comprehensive immigration reform must include several points, including enhanced border security to limit the growth of the problem, and make our nation safer from terrorists who could use the holes in our border as attack routes.

In addition to a fair guest-worker program, a reform bill also should have an opportunity for those already here illegally to earn legal residency if they meet strict requirements, including paying fines and showing they have had a responsible work history.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, with about 2.7 million of them in California. Illegal immigration is costly, not only to the workers who are often exploited, but to the taxpayers.

We spend $1 billion a year keeping illegal immigrant felons in our prisons, and much more in our education, social services and health systems.

The best way to solve this problem is through a comprehensive approach that considers all the ramifications of the immigration issue.

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/1409342.html

Gag me. Same story, different year.

Yes, California is bankrupt, let's Amenesty in 2 million low income, low skilled, self-serving illegals and their families to competely deplete our system. And then demand that the American people in all states pay for them. Feinstein stupid logic.

If we legalized all these illegal people, we wouldn't need a guest worker program now would we? Is that the supposid point? To allow them to work legally? If they were, then we wouldn't need another darn program. We don't have enough jobs to go around as it is.

Here's a suggestion.....if there's any talk of amnesty, part of the "comprehensive reform" is freezing all work visas and not allowing any more to come in till we have an accurate counting of the people here and whether we have the jobs to sustain what we already have and giving our own the oppertunity to fill those positions before bringing more people in.

Wasn't there an article posted here yesterday about there being no shortage of farm workers in FLA this year? They are migrating to other states who need farm workers or going back home.

No way in H e double el do we need more foreign workers!!!

Similar bills have been introduced since 2003 without success.

And it won't succeed this year either.

Focus needed here, please take ACTION!!!

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-900143.html#900143