Sessions bucks farmworker addition to Iraq funding bill

MARY ORNDORFF

News Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON - It was supposed to be a relatively quiet Friday, with no votes and most senators heading back to their home states.

But Sen. Jeff Sessions' office felt like a war room.

The Alabama Republican was marshaling his resources from the last immigration reform battle, which he won, and ramping up for a new fight, this one over a section on farmworkers that a Senate committee added Thursday evening to the bill paying for the Iraq war.

"There were no hearings on it and nobody had any idea that this was about to happen," Sessions said from his Capitol Hill office.

His staff had a late night analyzing the 101-page provision that would allow certain agricultural workers to stay in the country legally, and when Sessions came to work the next day, he was back in fiery form as lead critic of any new program that doesn't cut down on the number of border crossers.

"I was a bit surprised, I gotta tell you, because my impression was they didn't want to talk about immigration in an election year," he said. He already was fielding calls from national conservative commentators who wanted him to appear on their programs, and he was more than willing.

At issue was an amendment giving temporary legal status to those who can prove they've been working on U.S. farms in the past two years, pay a fine, and continue to work at least 100 days a year over the next five years.

"This amendment provides a consistent, stable workforce for an industry that depends almost exclusively on undocumented labor - agriculture," said sponsor Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. She and fellow sponsor, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, called it an emergency measure to keep planters, pickers, pruners and packers on the job. The number receiving the special status would be capped at 1.35 million, according to Craig's office.

Although similar to a plan that was in the failed immigration reform legislation last year, it had one key difference - a five-year expiration date. In response, the Senate Appropriations Committee agreed by a 17-12 vote to add it to the war funding bill.

The expiration date did not assuage Sessions. He figures the 1.35 million workers who gain the temporary legal status would be joined by about 1.62 million of their relatives.

"What do you think will happen at the end of five years? Is anybody going to ask them to go back home?" Sessions asked.

Although he's opposed anything that allows illegal border crossers a chance at legal status, Sessions said he is open to a guest worker plan that allows people to go back and forth legally, depending on the season.

"Let's create a workable system of temporary workers where the government, not the farmers, decides how many are really needed," Sessions said. "I reject the idea that Western growers are entitled to just as many workers as they may need any time they need them.

"That's a special-interest policy, not the national policy. These big agribusinesses are not entitled to set immigration policy for America just to meet their interests."

Feinstein has tried to pass the legislation, known widely as Ag Jobs, for more than a year. Critics have called it amnesty; advocates say it's key to the American farm economy.

Sessions on Friday resumed his role of whipping up public opposition.

"I do think it's important that those of us who care about it let the people know what is happening," he said. "I think it's possible this could be blocked and not become law, but I think it's possible if nobody complains, that they could force it through."

In committee, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., voted against the Feinstein amendment.