Farm Bureau not hopeful on immigration reform

By Dan Wheat
World staff writer
Posted November 18, 2008

WENATCHEE — Immigration reform is a top priority of the American Farm Bureau, but it probably won’t be a top priority of President Barack Obama’s administration or a more-Democratic Congress, a bureau official says.

Patrick O’Brien, a senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington, D.C., spoke Monday at the fourth annual Washington Farm Bureau Labor Conference at the Stanley Civic Center. The conference preceded the Washington Farm Bureau’s 89th annual meeting, which runs today through Thursday at the center.

The meeting is rotated among Washington cities. This is the first time it’s been held in Wenatchee since 1996.

In an interview prior to his Monday speech, O’Brien said the Obama administration and Congress have more pressing issues to deal with than immigration reform — the national and global economic crises, management of the federal economic bailout, wars, health care and education.

The nation needs immigration reform if it wants agriculture to survive, O’Brien said. “But we have to recognize it’s a very fractious issue that will take more time and energy to reach a consensus than some other things. It probably means immigration reform will come later rather than sooner.â€