8-27 IAN Crapo Immigration

 Crapo on immigration. I caught up with Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho and asked him why he did not support the immigration reform bill. “Significant progress was made on the immigration reform bill but frankly, there still were provisions that would have allowed those who have illegally entered the country to obtain citizenship and to gain an advantage towards that over those who have not illegally entered the country. I think we could have fixed those provisions had we been able to spend a little more time on it and get it done but the bottom line is that there was another problem as well which was the border enforcement which had to be first and I think in everybody’s agreement was not adequately put into place and there were high levels of concern that I thought were appropriate that the way the border provisions were in place, Pres. Obama could just make a declaration that border security was appropriately handled and then we would move ahead. Those kinds of further restrictions that we brought forward were rejected. My message is that first and foremost we must have immigration reform. It is critical not just to our agricultural industry but to the economy of the United States in general. Secondly, there must be some key elements present. First, we have to have adequate border enforcement assured. We can do that. Second, those who have already illegally entered the country may move into a legal status in a guestworker system but may not be allowed a pathway to citizenship that gives them an advantage over those that did not break the law.”