Feinstein farmworker bill takes a baby step forward

Democrat from California says agriculture industry has acute need for laborers; attaches immigrant worker measure to war spending legislation.

By DENA BUNIS

The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON - Determined to address what she says is an emergency situation in the U.S. agriculture industry, Sen. Dianne Feinstein persuaded her colleagues on the Appropriations Committee today to add a scaled-down version of her Ag Jobs bill to the Iraq spending bill destined for the Senate floor.

"We need this legislation because in the last year 13,280 farms in the United States have shut down, and others have moved their operation to Mexico'' between 2006 and 2007, Feinstein, D-Calif., said at the Appropriations panel meeting to vote on the Iraq bill. Of the closed farms, 1,000 were in California.

The committee approved her measure by a 17-12 vote.

The provision Feinstein hopes can survive a Senate floor vote and get approved by House members as well falls short of the permanent fix she had hoped to provide for an industry she says is in crisis because of an acute labor shortage.

Under today's amendment, farm workers who have worked in agriculture within the past four years will be able to work legally for growers for five years. The measure doesn't include any path to legal status or citizenship.

There was little debate on the amendment in committee according to Scott Gerber, Feinstein's communications director. Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who has consistently opposed any measures to provide benefits to illegal immigrants, urged colleagues to vote against it. And Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who has partnered with Feinstein on this legislation, spoke for it.

Immigration bills involving agricultural workers have traditionally gotten more support than other more broad immigration measures but Feinstein has still been unable to get such a bill enacted into law.

This more modest approach is likely to draw support, especially from lawmakers who don't want to give any permanent status to immigrants who entered the country illegally or who overstayed their visas.

But there is a determined group of senators and House members who oppose any benefits for people who broke immigration law and say there wouldn't be a labor shortage if growers paid higher wages. And it's likely that those lawmakers might try and add enforcement provisions to the bill that would be objected to by members who might otherwise approve of the agriculture provisions.

Some immigration advocates have also expressed concern that if individual immigration issues are dealt with separately, it will make it harder to get a broad comprehensive bill passed.

But Michele Waslin, senior policy analyst for the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigration think tank, said agriculture "has always been its own issue. I think Feinstein is showing us there is an appetite for balanced reform. Employers need workers and it just makes sense at this point in time."