Watching Out for Immigration Reform

Watching Out for Immigration Reform

Watching Out for Immigration Reform. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Immigration reform is the hot topic on Capital Hill this week and according to Dan Fazio with Washington Farm Bureau they are keeping a close eye on the proceedings.

FAZIO: We support that but we are very concerned about the future flow prospects. In other words, what do we do if in fact the administration gets its way and it gets to adjust the status of the undocumented workers that are here now. You know back in ’86 we just adjusted their status or just gave them amnesty.

Fazio describes that process.

FAZIO: And that’s the proposal for agriculture anyway. It’s called AgJobs and we say that anyone who is working in agriculture in an undocumented manner for the past several years and then agrees to work at least three more years in agriculture would get their status adjusted; they would get a green card or permanent residence.

Fazio says they are asking the question, what happens after that.

FAZIO: We know from our experience in ’86 that when the farm workers received amnesty many of them moved on to higher paying jobs like construction. Interestingly enough some of them are coming back from construction jobs now but what we would expect to happen is that after those three years those people would move out of agriculture and how would we get workers after that.

More on Monday.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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