05/18/07 Potato Commission works immigration issue

Farm and Ranch May 18, 2007 Agriculture Supporting Immigration Reform Lobby Day was held on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Wednesday and among those participating was Chris Voigt Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission. Voigt: "We understand that the Senate is going to be taking this up before the Memorial Day Recess so it is very timely. We are going to be pushing true immigration reform, where we are going to protect our borders. We are going to do something with those folks that are here illegally, probably some type of earned status program and then also a good, streamlined, workable guest worker program." Voigt says the potato industry is very mechanized but it still needs a lot of labor at planting and harvesting. Voigt: "Not so much like the tree fruit folks but we still need a good group of employees that work hard. And quite frankly we are concerned that the tree fruit guys are going to be very desperate this year to get the workers to harvest their fruit and that they are going to be pulling people from the potato industry. So we really need comprehensive reform immediately so that we can get our crops into harvest." On Thursday a group of key bipartisan Senators and the White House announced a deal on immigration reform which includes a temporary worker program for agriculture. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.