07/28/08 Fixing Immigration

Fixing Immigration. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Immigration continues to be a volatile issue with very little action being taken. Washington Farm Bureau has stepped up to the plate saying that it is essential that states consider other ideas. Dan Fazio with WFB says it is crucial to fix this issue. FAZIO: The number one domestic issue of our time is not the high price of gas, it's not the healthcare crisis and it's not the mortgage crisis, its access to an adequate labor supply to harvest our crops and build our roads and yes to even build our airplanes which we know a little bit about up here in Washington. We're competing in a global economy and we risk loosing our place in the world if we can't solve the problem of an adequate work force. Interestingly, Fazio says the immigration rate in the U.S. is virtually unchanged. FAZIO: Our immigration rate, that is the rate that people move here from other countries, has been a constant 11 to 13% throughout our nation's history. In fact our immigration rate is lower today than it was in 1890 before we had immigration quotas. Fazio stresses that the U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our claim to fame has always been to welcome immigrants. FAZIO: 22 years ago we passed an immigration reform law. We gave amnesty to about 3 million people and for the first time we required people to prove that they were legally present before we gave them a job. We were also supposed to institute a guest worker program at that time but we just never got around to it. That law, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was a failure. Tomorrow Fazio talks about fixing the problem. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.