THE PACKER July 4, 2005
Guest worker reform still seems distant hope Though many agree immigration needs to be addressed, the election cycle may curtail efforts.
By Tom Karst, National Editor
There is growing momentum for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, but it is far from certain that Congress will find a formula for political success, said Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform, Washington, D.C.
“Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are getting on the playing field and increasing the momentum in general,” he said June 29.
A bipartisan approach to reform of immigration law and guest worker programs is the AgJobs legislation sponsored by Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and favored by dozens of senators and representatives in Congress.
That legislation has been under development since 1998 and has repeatedly made its way to Congress in the past five years. However, efforts to advance the agriculture-specific legislation have been frustrated by lack of clear support from the White House and House conservatives.
WORKERS RETURN: Meanwhile, Regelbrugge said Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., are putting together legislation that includes a guest worker program. However, he said that plan is expected to eventually require participants to return to their home countries.
While the bill was expected to be introduced by July 1, he said there is speculation that it may not be ready until Aug. 1.
There may be a philosophical difference between Kyl and Cornyn over how to handle undocumented workers, he said.
Kyl has favored an approach that includes employer sanctions and would require undocumented workers to return to their country.
“For a variety of reasons, the work-to-return approach won’t work politically and it won’t work for agriculture,” Regelbrugge said.
Cornyn has recently said that how to deal with undocumented workers remains up in the air, Regelbrugge said.
Regelbrugge said that AgJobs advocates have met with the staff of Cornyn to ask for unique treatment for agriculture in any immigration reform legislations.
Agriculture must have no statutory cap on admissions for guest worker programs, and it must have a priority over any other employer because of the urgency of harvest, he said.
Another immigration proposal, advanced by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kennedy, has already been introduced.
Regelbrugges said the McCain-Kennedy bill essentially sidesteps agriculture out of recognition of the work that has been done on AgJobs already.
However, were the McCain bill to find traction in the Senate, Regelbrugge said there is an expectation that AgJobs or a reasonably close version of it could be folded into it.
Republicans may have success advancing immigration reform that will require guest workers to eventually return to Mexico, according to Austin Perez, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, Washington, D.C.
Perez said the American Farm Bureau Federation will seek to attach agriculture-related amendments to whatever immigration legislation appears to have the best chance of success.
Perez predicted Senate consideration of the immigration issues by mid-July, with a possible mark up of a bill by late summer in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, Regelbrugge said it will be a long shot to see a comprehensive bills prove too difficult, he said.
GENERAL UNDERSTANDING: Generally speaking, members of Congress understand that Americans aren’t lining up to labor in the fields. They understand producers need a guest worker program.
What works against AgJobs, Regelbrugge said, is the fact that Congress hates dealing with the immigration issues and would rather have to deal with it once rather than several times.
Congress also may try to concentrate on enforcement of immigration laws first and put off fixing guest worker programs.
“That’s a whole lot like Jack Kevorkian visiting agriculture and putting it out of its misery,” Regelbrugge said. “Agriculture will not survive an enforcement first approach.”
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