A Day of Action Part 2

Last week, a coalition of business and agriculture leaders launched a Day of Action on immigration reform. Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association, Executive Director, Jon DeVaney was part of a teleconference which was part of a national effort across 20 states calling on Congress to act on immigration reform this year. DeVaney says that in Washington State, the apple industry alone supports 61-thousand jobs.

DeVANEY: These aren't all farm labor jobs. These are people who work in packing and warehousing, forklift and truck drivers, sales and marketing professionals and people who work in support industries. Anything from crop consultants to those who manufacture the boxes the fruit is shipped in. Without the labor force to pick the fruit though, all of those jobs and all of that economic activity in our state and nation are at risk.

DeVaney says that more record crops can be expected in the future and that will only compound the problem.

DeVANEY: So for agriculture and the fruit growers of Washington in particular, fixing our immigration system needs to happen now. The good news, of course, is that the American people seem to agree. We had polling that was recently completed by the Partnership for a New American Economy that shows there is strong public support across regions and across parties for acting now to fix our immigration system.

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