SACRAMENTO BEE

January 10, 2007

Second try for farm labor bill

Valley ag interests back plan stalled by immigration furor.

By Michael Doyle - Bee Washington Bureau

Lawmakers start trying again today to pass a big agricultural guest worker bill they think has the best shot of reaching the White House.

Backed by a cadre of San Joaquin Valley farmers and farmworkers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and her allies are reintroducing a guest worker bill that became entangled last year in immigration politics. They see a new Congress as a fresh opportunity.

"My hope is there is a greater willingness to act among the moderates," said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.

Even though some border-control hard-liners lost their re-election bids in November, the ambitious and complicated agricultural guest worker plan still confronts challenges from both right and left.

Some immigrant advocates prefer a wider-ranging package, rather than one limited to farmworkers. Even President Bush, when championing a comprehensive immigration bill, has called for it to cover all workers. Conservatives, in turn, maintain the emphasis should remain on securing U.S. borders.

"Let's be clear from the start about what we're discussing," the Senate's senior Democrat, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, declared during earlier debate. "It is amnesty for aliens employed unlawfully in the agricultural sector, and it is amnesty for the businesses that hire and exploit them as cheap labor."

Feinstein, too, once voiced sharp concerns over an agricultural guest worker program. She warned in April 2005 that such a program could become a "magnet for illegal immigration" that could have a "detrimental effect on our society."

Since then, Feinstein had worked with California farm groups to craft the latest package.

"The need for this bill is stark and it's immediate," Feinstein said Tuesday, citing farmer complaints about the lack of workers.

Costa and other Valley House members of both parties back the so-called AgJobs bill. It's popular among the United Farm Workers, whose president, Arturo Rodriguez, will be present at today's unveiling. It is equally popular among mainstream farm groups like the Nisei Farmers League and California Grape and Tree Fruit League, whose presidents, Manuel Cunha and Barry Bedwell, also flew back for the legislative unveiling.

"I think you can build consensus around it," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. "I think we can get something done that's strictly agriculture."

First introduced in 2003 after several years of negotiations, the AgJobs bill has been the focus of many rallies and press conferences. While it's been fine-tuned over time -- for instance, tightening the rules governing immigrants with criminal records -- the core remains the same.

It would enable upward of 1.5 million farmworkers now in this country illegally to obtain what has been dubbed a "blue card." This would grant temporary legal status, if the immigrants could prove they had worked in agriculture a certain length of time. If they continued to work in farming for several more years, they eventually could gain permanent legal U.S. residency.

The package also streamlines an existing foreign guest worker program that many U.S. farmers shun as being inefficient and cumbersome.

With the widespread backing of labor, church and agricultural organizations, the package has garnered robust Capitol Hill support.

"It's a pragmatic approach," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa.

Last year's effort collapsed, though, after the AgJobs package was attached to a broader and even more complicated immigration bill that ground to a halt. Ultimately, the only action the 109th Congress took on immigration was to authorize a construction of a 700-mile fence whose future is now in doubt.

Radanovich contended this year's bill should have smoother sailing because Democrats now control both the House and Senate. One big challenge, he conceded, will be to keep the bill from "broadening" into a more comprehensive effort that attracts even more controversy.