Posted on 11/01/2007 10:45:21 AM PDT by Plutarch
Labor provisions could be tucked into ag legislation.
WASHINGTON -- Farmers, immigrants and their Capitol Hill allies are hoping to graft an agricultural guest-worker plan onto the multibillion-dollar farm bill.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., hasn't yet decided whether to push the controversial guest-worker measure when the Senate considers the farm bill next week.
Behind the scenes, though, proponents are counting votes and lobbying furiously.
"Now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty, where real hard decisions have to be made," said Dan Haley, a lobbyist for the California Strawberry Commission and other farm groups. "We can't wait around."
Tactically, this is a very tough call. The decisions made in coming days will shape the $288 billion farm bill, the future of 1.5 million illegal immigrants and the immigration political landscape for months or years to come.
Haley insisted "we can eke out" a victory if the Senate votes on the guest-worker plan. Others have doubts; no one takes this fight for granted.
On Wednesday, for instance, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund electronically urged members to contact lawmakers in support of guest-worker revisions. The alert asserted that the Senate "is expected to vote" on the proposal. In reality, the guest-worker amendment remains in flux...
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
| ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/FRESNO BEE FILE |
| Roberto Flores-Bermudez, center, the Honduran ambassador to the United States, gestures as he speaks to a packinghouse worker at Bee Sweet Citrus this week. The ambassador was on a fact-finding mission sponsored by Valley farm groups; they hope the proposed AgJobs bill will make it easier to use a federal guest-worker program. Including its provisions in the farm bill is one option under consideration. |
Scam of the week!
“The AgJobs bill offers legal status and possible U.S. citizenship for 1.5 million illegal immigrant farmworkers. It also streamlines an existing guest-worker program.”
Here we go again!!! The politicians myst think we are stupid.
I am getting tired of emailing on this subject, but not that tired. Actually I am just pi$$ed.
....Bob
They just won’t quit will they?
I remember working in the local packing houses here in Central Florida each season for extra money. All the locals did. Time and 1/2 if you worked the night shift.
Took a cruise through the area around Easter. Looks like Tijuana.
The “new” America.
(sigh)
Any port in a storm.
Why can not they simply offer green cards to agricultural workers? I could take it then, but to allow illegals, and give them the possibility of citizenship is just flat wrong.
....Bob
ping
Lets see give amnesty to farm workers then they will look for other jobs, then we will need more ag workers...and then another amnesty...Can’t Congress learn from history?
So, they are willing to risk the entire farm bill, including the Food Stamps program, in an attempt to get the Agjobs provision passed? And Feinstein is undecided as to whether to move forward that way. That will be interesting, and will demonstrate just how far these people are willing to go to push their amnesty agenda. I see another cloture vote in the future that needs to be beat back if they proceed with their ill-advised plan, and they already fear they don’t have the votes.
Aside from the free-for-all the left politicos want to turn it into, what’s wrong with a guest worker program? Let’em come in quickly and easily on a seasonal visa. I’d even go so far as to say that those who can continually get legal on-the-books work for some years and stay out of trouble should be eligible for a green card.
A green card and five years continuous residence, and you can apply for citizenship. Giving them green cards is giving them amnesty, and moving them to the front of the line.
There will be more amnesty to come, a little at a time, neaky it in various bills, wear out the opposition. The foreign handlers must be pulling the string hard.
I meant a green card given to somebody so they can COME to do the work. In other words, allow somebody to cross the border to do the work, then go home. Absolutely nothing to do with citizenship.
.....Bob
How generous you are, with our taxes and our franchise. Any arrangement to give these who meet work or any other requirements will be diluted to nothing, and they will all get amnesty ("green cards") no matter how little they work or how much trouble they get into. And upon getting green cards the next Administration will be bent on getting them citizenship and into a voting booth. There, each will cancel out a Republican's vote, and in their millions they will give the Democrats a permanent lock on all three Federal branches.
Do you see any Republicans in this picture? If you do, you are far off into a fantasy land, likely intoxicated cheap labor's ill-gotten gains.
You are talking about a guest worker program. With no path to citizenship. I don’t have AS MUCH of a problem with that, but it still would depress wages. Ag wages have not risen in real terms in more than 20 years because the government has artificially inflated the labor pool with illegals.
“Aside from the free-for-all the left politicos want to turn it into, what’s wrong with a guest worker program?”
We have 20 million illegals here already. If they wanted to work the farms, they would do so. They prefer construction and other better paying jobs.
A good green card program can be seen in the sheep industry in the west.
Sheep herders from Peru are allowed to come here to be sheep herders during the winter, when the sheep are in the mountains. Then they go back to Peru, when the sheep go to the mountains, again, for the winter (southern hemisphere).
Sheep shearers are allowed under the green card program from New Zeland. They come here for the spring and summer and do their thing. They then go home to New Zeland for the shearing season in Ne Zealand. As an aside, by the way... They are a great bunch of people, hard partiers and would give you the shirt off their back.
.....Bob
That is as nice a definition of amnesty as I've seen lately. So, you favor amnesty. Why would this not work as a magnet for even more? And would they get amnesty, too?
“There will be more amnesty to come, a little at a time, neaky it in various bills, wear out the opposition. The foreign handlers must be pulling the string hard.”
We can stop them......we have so far.
What the politicans won’t tell you is that there will ALWAYS BE a need for more illegal workers, because once these illegals start in the picking fields, they will move up the food chain taking jobs American will do.
Thus creating an ever growing population of illegal aliens and a constant need more more cheap labor to replace the ones who are still here but moved up the food chain from picking vegitables.
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.