Farmers want Obama to back off immigration workplace enforcement

[babylonsister]

Farmers want Obama to back off immigration workplace enforcement
By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON — Farmers’ congressional allies are pressuring the Obama administration to ease up on some immigration work-site enforcement, underscoring a conflict at the heart of a broad-based immigration bill.

This week, spurred by complaints from farmers in California’s Central Valley, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein publicly urged the Department of Homeland Security to “redirect” immigration enforcement efforts toward “serious violent crimes” instead of “legitimate agricultural employers and their workers.”

“The reality is that the majority of farmworkers in the U.S. are foreign-born and unauthorized, which is well-known,” Feinstein wrote Tuesday, adding that she’s “afraid that this aggressive worksite enforcement strategy will deprive the agricultural sector of most of its workforce.”

Worksite monitoring has definitely heated up.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201303/farmers-want-obama-to-back-off.html#.UikiWD-6jeM

[scooter rider]

1. Doesn't Mr DiFI own hotels and vineyards?

Maybe a little self serving on her part.

[babylonsister]

2. I have no idea. Maybe

farmers actually need these workers and she's sticking up for the farmers, as politicians traditionally are supposed to stand up for their constituents. I know, seems a rarity these days.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. Of course they do, everyone exploiting illegal labor wants that.

Personally, I would be willing to bargain away a pathway to citizenship if it would help end the exploitation. I think that in the short run, legal residence status would be enough of an improvement over what now exists that it is worth it, so long as we actually get a bill passed.

Since the pathway that is being talked about is still 13 years long, with multiple hoops to jump through, it is very likely that we could revisit this sometime after the 2020 election (when the percentage of whites in the electorate will have fallen to ~66%) and end up with something much more reasonable.

As a hypothetical: If in 2021 a law was passed which allowed anyone with legal residence status of 7 or more years to apply for citizenship... it would still be a shorter path than the 13+ year path that has only a slim chance of passing now. The catch there is that we need to pass something which gives people legal residence status asap. This would also allow them to be eligible for things like unemployment insurance, worker's compensation and health care.


My focus on immigration is all about the exploitation. The fact that people who are here illegally can be victimized and have no legal recourse is so objectionable to me that I have no words to describe it.