Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Senate AgJOBS Fight Expected on Farm Bill as Early as Next Week
NumbersUSA ^ | October 26, 2007

Posted on 10/26/2007 11:51:04 AM PDT by Delacon

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced today that The Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 (H.R. 2419) is likely to come up for debate on the Senate floor during the week of November 5. Recently, Leader Reid had promised to attempt to attach the AgJOBS amnesty for illegal farmworkers to the farm bill during floor consideration. Despite the pleas of some open borders senators to forgo debate of additional amnesties this year, it appears another major Senate battle may be in the works as early as next week. CongressDaily reported this morning that although Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) supports "resolving immigration problems," he will "resist" efforts to add AgJOBS to the farm bill. By and large, this is the same AgJOBS amnesty proposed last year, which, if enacted, would reward an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens with amnesty (plus their spouses and children which could push the total to three million or more). This measure also would provide amnesty for employers who broke the law by hiring illegal aliens. Pro-amnesty advocacy groups are telling their members that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have promised them that AgJOBS will be attached to the farm bill this fall and be signed into law.

The Federal government offers the H-2A visa which allows farmers to import unlimited numbers of foreign agricultural workers for specific short-term work. Those complaining growers mostly bypass the H-2A visa program because they would have to pay an almost acceptable wage under the program, whereas wages for illegal aliens are far less.

Occasionally, a news story about "rotting crops" mentions that H-2A workers are available, but quotes growers as saying that going through legal channels of immigration is too cumbersome. NumbersUSA has worked with some of the most pro-farmer Members of Congress to streamline the H-2A program, make it faster, more dependable and remove a few somewhat outdated requirements. However, the farm group lobbyists have failed to support reforms and, instead, have put all their efforts into an amnesty for the illegal workers their clients already are hiring.

While NumbersUSA questions the need or the advisability of large-scale foreign agricultural worker importation, we support efforts to drive all such hiring through legal programs that are designed to minimize the negative effect on our American native and legal immigrant agricultural workers. It is time to revamp the H-2A program – not give amnesty to illegal aliens who, as history has demonstrated, often move on to non-agricultural professions and are replaced by new illegal workers.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; h2a; immigrantlist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last
Here they come again.
1 posted on 10/26/2007 11:51:05 AM PDT by Delacon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

ping


2 posted on 10/26/2007 11:56:54 AM PDT by gubamyster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

...from every direction you can think of.....


3 posted on 10/26/2007 11:58:38 AM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

More phone calls needed.. crops are not rotting in the field.. or we would see it on msm constatly, and poor starving kids as well


4 posted on 10/26/2007 11:58:56 AM PDT by JoanneSD
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JoanneSD

“crops are not rotting in the field.. or we would see it on msm constatly”

Good point. Some reporter standing in a field saying “little Johnny won’t be getting his pumpkin for Halloween this year”.


5 posted on 10/26/2007 12:01:54 PM PDT by Delacon (“The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.” Karl Popper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Delacon
Screw 'em. I'm really starting to hate "farmers", even though I was raised on one. We never had a Mexican working on the farm. Farm hands were regular everyday Americans that were paid a fair wage.

Those "farmers" don't need slave wage illegal aliens, that are nothing but a burden to taxpayers, a menance to society in so many ways.
The market can bear what ever slight extra cost it takes to hire legal citizens at decent wages.

6 posted on 10/26/2007 12:02:25 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

We need a golden stake.


7 posted on 10/26/2007 12:03:27 PM PDT by AU72
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JoanneSD

Whorealdo is out looking for the rotted crops and sob-stories as we speak. :)


8 posted on 10/26/2007 12:04:06 PM PDT by Snoopers-868th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Delacon
We need to kill this turkey too. The Senate is just tone-deaf on amnesty.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

9 posted on 10/26/2007 12:05:29 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Politicalmom
More amensty legislation! Congress critter ping!
10 posted on 10/26/2007 12:06:26 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

Time to sharpen the pitch forks and light the torches . . . again.

The growers seem to care far more about their profits than their country, kids schools, hospitals, and communities. I would much rather import brocolli and apples than third world problems.

Ironically, if the growers get their amnesty those workers are going to immediately demand better wages and working conditions. So the growers will require more cheap illegal immigrants in the never ending pipeline of unskilled third world imports.


11 posted on 10/26/2007 12:10:20 PM PDT by Maynerd (Hillary = amnesty, higher taxes,defeat in the WOT, and socialized medicine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

thanks, bfl


12 posted on 10/26/2007 12:15:30 PM PDT by neverdem (Call talk radio. We need a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits. Let's Roll!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nathan Zachary

The thing is that a few large modern tractors or large new modern peices of farm equipment or heck even japanese robots ( in other words Technology), can do more work cheaper than hundreds of Mexican illegals. The liberal media is trying to tell us that Stone Age work habits can outdo our modern tecnological, computerized industrial economy. If that were so then India and Mexico would be rich because they have all the cheap labor that the Democrats say we need.


13 posted on 10/26/2007 12:36:34 PM PDT by rurgan (socialism doesn't work. Government is the problem not the solution to our problems.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Nathan Zachary

Remember, “farming” nowadays isn’t much different from construction or building cars. It’s a factory business, not a family business. I used to work for an agricultural lending co-op, and yes, they held many small loans to family farmers. But the majority of their portfolio was seven- and eight-figure loans to large businesses that employed hundreds or thousands of people. Given the opportunity, you know they’ll hire hordes of illegals at ridiculously low wages to do their lettuce picking or chicken plucking or cow slaughtering.

}:-)4


14 posted on 10/26/2007 12:41:13 PM PDT by Moose4 (Ron Paul is like a beautiful plate of food ruined by a cow patty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: rurgan

Thing is, many of the illegals don’t actually work on a farm. They work in slaughterhouses, or processing plants, that still need a lot of heavy, unskilled manual labor (usually in disgusting or even dangerous conditions).

}:-)4


15 posted on 10/26/2007 12:42:34 PM PDT by Moose4 (Ron Paul is like a beautiful plate of food ruined by a cow patty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Moose4

“Thing is, many of the illegals don’t actually work on a farm. They work in slaughterhouses, or processing plants, that still need a lot of heavy, unskilled manual labor (usually in disgusting or even dangerous conditions).”

The thing is, as the article states, once the current crop of illegals are granted amnesty, they move on to other jobs(you know, jobs Americans ARE willing to do) and this just creates an magnet for more illegals to come here to fill the vacancies. Agjobs doesn’t solve the problem, it makes it worse.


16 posted on 10/26/2007 1:19:37 PM PDT by Delacon (“The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.” Karl Popper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Moose4

The liberals/Communists/Democrats and the liberal media are lying when they say that we need hordes of illegal Mexicans for our economy to work right.

Processing plants can be automated too. Japan doesn’t need to import illegals because they have technology and robots. Toyota car plants are almost completely automated with robots.

Even if you were right and those industries would “need” illegals then whole industries could move to Mexico or China . Those industries don’t have to stay here in the U.S. to import illegals from another country as they can move to that country or China just like manufactoring has. So there is no need to import any cheap, unskilled stone Age labor.Sorry but that’s a fact . The liberal media is lying like they lie when they say Global warming is a real crisis . In either case we don’t need illegals. U.S. manufactoring is moving to China anyway and we still have some jobs opportunities. Although the loss in opportunity is not because high taxes and regulations chased manufactoring away but because of the growth of government , high taxes and the many regulations.


17 posted on 10/26/2007 2:04:08 PM PDT by rurgan (socialism doesn't work. Government is the problem not the solution to our problems.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

Oh, I agree! I was just saying that some of us have an image of “illegal alien farm worker” = a bunch of sweating campesinos on some big lettuce farm in California. In reality, it’s just as likely (or more likely) to be those same illegals slaughtering beef in Omaha, poultry in Virginia, or hogs in North Carolina.

Here in NC, we’ve got a rapidly exploding illegal population, and a big factor in it are the major ag companies like Smithfield that stack their processing plants full of them, working for low wages and no benefits. Those plants are major employers wherever they are, and bring in huge tax revenue, which is how they keep local government from rocking the boat. And our Rat-controlled state government over in Raleigh shows no signs of doing a damn thing about it.

}:-)4


18 posted on 10/26/2007 4:55:46 PM PDT by Moose4 (Ron Paul is like a beautiful plate of food ruined by a cow patty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Delacon

The Oligarchs will have their way, WE THE PEOPLE be damned.


19 posted on 10/26/2007 6:41:28 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Elections have consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Moose4

“In reality, it’s just as likely (or more likely) to be those same illegals slaughtering beef in Omaha, poultry in Virginia, or hogs in North Carolina.”

I see your point. Yours is a case of jobs filled by illegals that Americans would be willing to do. Hard, and semi skilled labor that if left to the market would be filled with legal labor, with good wages, and probably unionized. Its factory work. Why shouldn’t legal workers have those jobs and earn factory wages. Hell those jobs could be filled by legal labor and they could join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Not a big unionization fan but it beats the immorality and illegality of slave labor which is just about what the illegal immigrant workforce is.


20 posted on 10/26/2007 8:05:49 PM PDT by Delacon (“The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell” Karl Popper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson