Posted on 01/22/2018 5:48:35 AM PST by ptsal
Calling proposed immigration reform legislation “devastating” to Western Growers members, association president and CEO Tom Nassif alerted members that the group will work to stop it from becoming law.
The immigration reform package, the Secure America’s Future Act, was authored by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. House leaders passed a continuing resolution on Jan. 18 that will fund the government for another four weeks. Facing a midnight deadline Jan. 19, the Senate had still not passed any bill to keep the government operating.
According to Nassif, the House passage of the continuing resolution included a commitment to vote on Goodlatte’s bill by the end of February.
According to Nassif, the Goodlatte bill would provide a minimal fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in exchange for partially funding the border wall, mandatory E-Verify, and replacing the H-2A program with a revamped H-2C program, among other provisions.
“The proposed H-2C program would be devastating to our membership as it fails to provide adequate assurances for our current and future workforce needs,” Nassif said in the e-mail. “Under the Goodlatte bill, all current unauthorized farmworkers would be required to become guest workers under the H-2C program, which mandates they return to their home country before participating in the guest worker program.”
Nassif said the bill also leaves their non-U.S. spouses and children deportable. The Goodlatte bill also places an arbitrary cap on the H-2C program at 410,000 visas per year for ag workers, with no emergency measure in the event labor demands exceed the cap.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has told media outlets he will only bring the Goodlatte bill up for a vote if they can get the support of 218 Republicans, Nassif said.
“In the coming days and weeks, Western Growers will work with the greatest urgency to prevent the Goodlatte bill from coming to the House floor while we also pursue a workable solution in Congress.”
Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said in an e-mail that the group was studying the Goodlatte bill. As of Jan. 19, Marsh said it “appears unlikely” that the House-passed continuing resolution will move through the Senate.
The DACA fix also includes amnesty for the parents of the DACA kids.
The original argument was “the kids should not be legally responsible for the crimes of the parents”
well why shouldn’t the parents be responsible for the crimes of the parents instead of being rewarded..???
The fact that any industry has benefited from poor immigration policy in the past does not mean we shouldn’t change our laws to suit the needs of the entire country.
Just how many illegal workers does the AG community need for heavens sakes? California is crawling in them.
They want cheap labor, no they want Slave Labor.
Let them bear the total costs for the illegals then. Welfare, housing, food stamps, all of it.
The taxpayers have had enough.
Exactly.
From Wikipedia:
The Western Growers Association (WGA) is an association representing family farmers growing produce in the states of California and Arizona....
(((
I plan to attempt to find out which growers support helping illegals so that I can stop buying their products.
Well said.
I went to the website for Western Growers Association hoping to find a list of members so that I can boycott their products. No list. Closest I came to identifying members was a page of testimonials, but it features the names of only 8 farms. Betting there are more members than this.
The east coast farmers I know who hire properly documented migrant farm hands provide them with housing, utilities and pay the doc bills for work related injuries.
They like cheap labor that they can abuse
Tough. Learn to mechanize
The objection: “The proposed H-2C program would be devastating to our membership as it fails to provide adequate assurances for our current and future workforce needs,” Nassif said in the e-mail. “Under the Goodlatte bill, all current unauthorized farmworkers would be required to become guest workers under the H-2C program, which mandates they return to their home country before participating in the guest worker program.”
The reality; This is similar to the Bracero program of decades past that worked very well until Cesar Chavez and his phony farm workers killed it.
That’s right...farmbots coming sooner than you thought.
Thanks ptsal.
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.