1/3/08 H2A History

H2A History. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. It's a new year and the questions continue as to when a comprehensive immigration package will be in place. It doesn't appear to be any time soon so how do farmers get ready for the coming growing season. Brent Milne, McDougal & Sons says in the past, the immigration issue was basically an open door. MILNE: Open borders in essence was really the heart of immigration policy through the early 20th century. In fact in some instances there were federally sponsored immigration promotions in the 1800's in turn suggesting that the burgeoning U.S. economy of the time was creating jobs much more quickly than natural population growth could fill. A study done a few years ago estimated the Latino buying power at some $736 billion and projected to be over $1-trillion in 2010. But a number of years back it wasn't the Latino population at the forefront of the issue. MILNE: Unfortunately this more or less open policy took a decidedly turn towards quotas and outright exclusions with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892. Milne says the H2A program goes back to the early 20th century. MILNE: Immigration policy has not changed substantially in the 55 years since the proposal of the McCarran-Walter Bill of 1952. McCarran-Walter was subsequently passed by Congress over a veto by Truman and became what is known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 or INA for short. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.