05/01/08 Immigration reform, part one

It's campaign time, an election year. Its controversial. Congress hasn't done anything with it and why would we think they would this year. The issue is immigration reform. Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced the Emergency Agriculture Relief Act, a bill that American Farm Bureau's Paul Schlegel says gives temporary stability to agricultural labor. SCHLEGEL "Senator Feinstein has drafted a bill which would allow existing agricultural workers who don't have proper documentation to get a visa to make them legal for five years." Schlegel says the five year time frame gives farmers some breathing room while Congress struggles to find a permanent solution. It's a situation that didn't happen overnight. SCHLEGEL "It's the result of a bad law under which a farmer, any employer actually, when he hires someone he must take their documents on face value. If he doesn't he can be sued for discrimination." And that puts ag producers between a rock and a hard place especially with talk of "No-Match" letters possibly being sent out. SCHLEGEL "In our hired work force of about a million people its estimated that over half lack legal status so if we lose those in sectors particularly like dairy, or nurseries or mushrooms that will have a huge dislocating affect in the sector." More to this story, that's tomorrow. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott