Posted on 05/15/2009 9:22:43 AM PDT by SmithL
Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday introduced a bill that would grant amnesty to up to 1.35 million farmworkers who are working in the country illegally, many of them in California.
Nicknamed the AgJobs Bill, the measure has been proposed multiple times this decade, without success, by Feinstein and other legislators. Some supporters are hoping it might fare better under the Obama administration.
California's labor-intensive agriculture industry and worker advocates, such as the United Farm Workers of America, have long pushed for the reform measure.
"We have acknowledged for a number of years that a significant part of our labor force presents fraudulent documents in order to get work," said Bryan Little, director of labor relations for the California Farm Bureau.
While drought problems have reduced the demand for labor this year, Little said growers remain concerned about the worker shortages experienced earlier in the decade when lucrative construction jobs pulled employees away from the fields.
"A lot of people who used to do farm work were nailing up housing for construction in Elk Grove," Little said. "Farmers couldn't get people coming to do the work for any price."
The bill would allow foreign farmworkers who have already been working illegally in the United States for at least two years to earn a path toward becoming legal residents. Family members would also be eligible, potentially bringing the total number of legalized residents to about 2 million people.
Feinstein's bill, co-sponsored by 16 other senators, none of them Republicans, would also revamp a program that recruits foreign workers for seasonal jobs on American farms. Most California farmers currently avoid using guest workers because of the complications and costs involved with participating in the federal program, Little said.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
She delivers defense contracts to her husband. Blum (Mr. Feinstein) gets the FDIC re-sale function for CBRE; she pals with Jim Jones...and then pushes more farm amnesty...
...the media response?
(crickets)
When I was a kid 40 years ago there were legal migrant workers on all the farms around me. However the problem with legal workers is that they cost as much as any American worker. This leads to needing a new round of illegals to cut the costs back in the never ending cycle.
She is praying for 2,000,000 more votes in her next election under the guise of “compassion”.
These Liberals have no shame, nor conscience, despite their pleas to the contrary.
“earn a path to” “jobs Americans won’t do” “afraid to speak up”
Another day, same old bovine excrement/mentira del toro.
farmworkers = votes
ping
I think Dianne should concentrate on her Chinese connection. Bad vibes are rising from that one.
Didn't work before, won't work now.
Amnesty supporters have more supporters in the House now. Pressuring moderate House Dems into voting against it will be the key.
Then there's this bit of wisdom: . . . growers remain concerned about the worker shortages experienced earlier in the decade when lucrative construction jobs pulled employees away from the fields.
Most countries in the world give temporary workers a visa for one particuar type of work only. If they decide they want to do another type of work, they must apply for the proper visa and permission. Otherwise, they're visa gets cancelled and they get deported. What's so hard about that?
If we gave work permits to every illegal alien in farm work I would not mind as long as we booted out all other illegal aliens and their families. But this will never happen
The housing boom is over yet we cannot shed all those illegals that worked in it and whose cheapo labor made it possible. My guess is one way or another they are welfare and of course free hospital care
And what are these former house builders doing now? Taking jobs from Americans who need them while promoting corruption in other fields.
If all the illegals self-deported in the next month we’d see our economy right itself in short order. But we have the Democrats defending and encouraging them while that party values votes over our nation’s survival.
Right now I believe voting Democrat labels a person stupid, corrupt or purposely evil. And we obviously have a real idiocrocy out there.
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