12/10/07 Immigration & H2A

Immigration & H2A. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. On Friday we began talking about the immigration issue and Washington Congressman Doc Hastings stood firm that something needed to be done including educating his fellow leaders that Washington is one a very few states that depend on immigrant labor. HASTINGS: The challenge with educating my colleagues about our concerns, is that Central Washington is unique. There are only a small handful of areas like ours with labor-intensive, specialty crop based economies  California, Arizona, Florida and a few others. Some have thought that the AgJobs bill might be added to the Farm Bill but Hastings is doubtful anything will be done. HASTINGS: It's been reported that Congressman Rahm Emanuel who is the number three Democrat in the House said that they won't even attempt immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president So as I mentioned little seems to have changed since December 2005. Of course we are going into an election year and Hastings says that is anyone's guess. HASTINGS: It's unknown what a new Administration of either party would bring to the table. We could end up with a president who is beholden to the labor unions after a costly election and opposes all guestworker programs. We could end up with a president who takes an enforcement-only approach. We have already seen that some of the presidential candidates have positions on immigration that are unclear or very extreme. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.