05/16/07 Supporting Immigration Reform

Supporting Immigration Reform. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Immigration reform is a hot bed of politics, agriculture and the U.S. public. Today is an action day in Washington D.C. It's a day when Ag producers and industry leaders converge on the Capitol with one thing in mind; ensuring a legal workforce. Bruce Grim with the Washington Apple Growers Marketing Association and US Apple talks about how the Lobby Day on Capitol Hill came about. GRIM: This sort of came about by US Apple realizing at our March meeting that one of the more significant issues to come before our industry in a good while is this issue of labor. If we don't have labor to get our crops picked, the game is over pretty quickly. So the US Apple board created an apple labor task force and I've been asked to chair that committee and we're sort of overseeing some budgetary funds to try to do some things to help get the message to our legislators in D.C. how critically important this issue is to the industry. While US Apple has taken the lead it's not just a fruit or even just an Ag issue. GRIM: A whole host of other industries  I think we have people at the Ports that have come to the realization that a lot of product gets shipped through there that perhaps they have an interest in making sure we have something to export so it's an issue that's just growing in interest across the country and it has really started with the whole Ag jobs concept. As with many issues involving a lot of politics, we spend a lot of time talking about fixing things. Is this a fixable problem? GRIM: Well I think it is. We have to start with the understanding that the H2A program which was set up to allow folks to come in wasn't really designed as a program that would work; it was designed as a program that would not work. So simply fixing H2A really isn't the solution to the problem either but I think it's a component of it and is it fixable  yes and I think AgJobs provides a reasonable approach to fixing the problem. According to Grim there are a number of activities planned for today including a presentation, press conference and then many politicians will get a personal visit. GRIM: About 120 plus people from across the country, not just agriculture but others of our coalition partners will be fanning out across Capitol Hill to actually go visit House and Senate offices to make sure that people who are either already in our camp that perhaps need a little additional support or people that are kind of on the edge  we visit those people and make sure they are hearing our message loud and clear that we have to fix the agricultural component of the labor problem that we have, it's a very real problem. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.