04/03/07 Dealing with Immigration

Late last week, the White House announced they have devised a plan to begin dealing with the immigration issue. In closed door sessions, Republican Senators came up with a draft plan to address the presence of 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants. Part of the new plan is a 3-year visa that could be renewed indefinitely but would cost 35-hundred dollars each time. This visa would give undocumented workers legal status, but in order to get a green card, they`d have to return to their home country and apply to re-enter legally and pay a $10,000 fine. In addition, the plan would require 18,300 Border Patrol agents and 370 miles of physical fencing be in place, as well as electronic monitoring of the southern border ongoing even before a temporary worker program could start. As the new growing season is getting underway, local growers are already starting to see shortages. Kathy Mertes, Area Director North Central Workforce Development Area says they are trying to document the shortages. MERTES: Unfortunately it's one of those things it's hard to get your arms around exactly how many people are needed and how many are we short because unless we have a job order in our system, it doesn't appear as if there is a shortage. She says they may not be able to fill job requests but it's till important to file. MERTES: So we've been trying to encourage growers and farmers to list their job orders with us so we can at least get some sort of official handle on that. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.