9-13 IAT Work Export

More on immigration labor reform. About two years ago, I did a story about an apple producer up in the state of Washington who had to pay bonds and transportation fees to bring in labor from Mexico to help pick apples. At the time we both were sickened by the fact that not very far down the road from his orchards were Americans with their cheesy little excuses scrawled on cardboard box parts. Well, Sarah Marie Frey-Talley Is the owner of Frey Farms Produce in Illinois. She says that we need to all agree on some form of immigration reform in order to grow farms. As it stands right now, fresh fruit and vegetable producers are shrinking their acreages and operations because of the instability and lack of assuredness that they can find an adequate labor force. immigration reform would allow current ag workers to transition to the blue card program and also increase the number of visas for guest workers into the U.S. "How that would directly affect our business is given a larger workforce to pull from, we would expand our acres in several states throughout the Midwest and Southeast, we would grow more fruits and vegetables, plus building and expanding our business and hiring more domestic workers to work in the warehouses, to work in the offices, to create more domestic jobs. If we are able to grow and produce more fruits and vegetables, expand our acreage and get it harvested, that means we are creating jobs for the domestic workforce. Frey-Talley says ultimately a variety of job opportunities would become available.