12/14/07 Another immigration reform meeting

The Idaho Dairymen's Association is going to hold a second informational meeting about immigration. That meeting will be held in Nampa next Tuesday, December 18th from 2 to 5 PM at Elmer's Restaurant and if the first meeting is any indication there will be plenty of people attending. The Magic Valley session on November 30th drew 165 people. Idaho Dairymen's executive director Bob Naerebout says an immigration attorney will be at the Nampa meeting to talks about legal rights for employers and employees as will as answering immigration related questions. NAEREBOUT "Our board has authorized an expenditure up to 350 thousand dollars to start working on forming a business coalition for responsible immigration reform. We feel its got to start some where and the only way you're really going to change anything because our legislators right now are not making sound decisions for us, they're making sound decisions based on whether they can get re-elected or not. What we have to do not only as the dairy industry but those of us concerned about the whole issue on immigration is to start changing public perception of the issue." Immigration reform, the business coalition, rights and No-Match letters are all on the agenda. Naerebout says the meeting next week is open to other agriculture groups, non-ag industries and interested parties and interpreters will be available if needed. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott