Kansas agriculture secretary seeks federal waiver for illegal immigrants

[denverbill]

TOPEKA -- Facing pressure from large dairies and feedlots desperate for workers, Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman is seeking a federal waiver that would allow companies to hire illegal immigrants.

Rodman has met several times with officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about launching a pilot program that would place employers and illegal immigrants in a special state-organized network. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that the goal is to create a legal, straightforward manner of organizing existing immigrant labor.

So far, Homeland Security has neither approved nor rejected the idea.

“I need a waiver,” Rodman said. “It would be good for Kansas agriculture.”

Now, a coalition of business interests is preparing to push the idea in Topeka. Details are expected to emerge this week about a bill establishing the outline of a state-managed worker program. Operating in cooperation with the federal government, it would link sponsor companies with illegal immigrants who have been in Kansas a minimum of five years and have no criminal background.
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Good old 'business interests'. Whatever it takes to keep wages low!

[JoePhilly]

1. That depends.

Hiring illegals keeps wages low in part because they are often off the books. So there are no rules regarding wages. You can pay them less then minimum wage and no one knows.

If you create a formal system, like a guest worker program, the wages (in theory), should become known and so they would likely go up.

[denverbill]

2. We already have guest worker programs.

http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/h2a.pdf?docID=1621

The problem is farmers and the contractors they hire don't want to abide by the law because it's too expensive.

[JoePhilly]

13. Which means those programs you refer to (created in the 80s) are broken.

Which is why I said "It depends".

There are more illegals here than you can deport. And some of them have lived here, and been exploited for a long time.

Many of the illegal folks who should be allowed to stay can't complain about low wages because they risk being deported. If those folks could self identify safely, the pool of workers who are "illegal" gets reduced.

You correctly identify the source of the problem, employers who intentionally hire illegals so they can pay them less.

By expanding the guest worker program and allowing those who have lived here for a long time to stay here ... you should get improvement in wages.

As things stand, the farmer stays quiet, and the illegal immigrant stays quiet.

[A Simple Game]

10. We just need to rely on the rule of supply and demand.

When the supply of labor is low, then the demand for higher wages goes up.

The only need for allowing illegal immigrants to work is to keep the supply of labor high and wages low.

[JoePhilly]

14. How's that working out for Alabama?

http://immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/bad-business-how-alabama%E2%80%99s-anti-immigrant-law-stifles-state-economy

[A Simple Game]

15. I'm not sure, have the farm wages in Alabama gone up?

I don't agree with the law in Alabama, it is way to severe and even the farmers don't like it. According to the article you linked to it is placing a financial and liability burden on the farmers.

[existentialist]

3. probusiness wage suppression and illegal immigration

Of course this is intended to keep wages low.

That has been part of the Republican probusiness agenda from since before anyone now alive was born.

Republicans have a problem, however in that they have become anti-illegal immigrant as part of their pandering to the rest of their base.

That it has been primarily Republican probusiness interests that have supported (and exploited) labor from illegal immigrants and thereby encouraged illegal immigration for decades has been kept out of public view.

This is a hard double sided issue for Democrats too, but if we can expose the Republican hypocrisy on the issue, then it can at least be rationally discussed, and the relevation of the facts will generally help Democrats.

[pampango]

12. Right! Corporate republicans want large numbers of illegal immigrants, thus their "self-deporting"

strategy and their opposition to a path to citizenship. Corporate repubs know that "self-deporting" doesn't work (so the "illegals" will still be here) and with no path to citizenship they stay "illegal" and exploitable (which is why Mitt pushes it so hard).

You're right, too, that in pandering to their nativist base they have created a "monster". That base led to state immigration laws in Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama (all republican states, of course) that have harmed the very businesses that the "corporate" boys are all about.

It is a hard issue for Democrats as well, but at least we have comprehensive reform that includes the enforcement measures that the right loves with other strategies that help make the illegal immigrants who are still here less "illegal" and less exploitable.

[madrchsod]

4. we used to have migrant workers who picked crops all over america

starting in the south and working their way north then returning to mexico or starting again in the south.since nafta and other trade policies it no longer worth going back to mexico.

[Snake Alchemist]

6. Slavery would be cheaper and more effective.

Why settle for slavery-lite?

[perdita9]

5. How hypocritical can you get?

Apparently Kansas wants to set a new standard.

[Sky Masterson]

7. Kris Kobach Secretary of State Kansas (R), Author Of Anti-Immigrant State Laws,

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/11/402550/kris-kobach-author-of-anti-immigrant-state-laws-backs-mitt-romney-in-gop-race/?mobile=nc

-snip Kobach is the anti-immigrant official who drafted Arizona and Alabama’s harmful immigration laws, and who once wrote a book opposing the anti-Apartheid boycott of South Africa. “With Kris on the team, I look forward to working with him to take forceful steps to curtail illegal immigration and to support states like South Carolina and Arizona that are stepping forward to address this problem,” Romney said in press release. ----end

[fasttense]

8. Corporations and RepubliCONS want it both ways.

They want cheap, cheap, wage slaves and no immagrants from further south. That's why they have so many American citizens in jail and use them as contract labor for big corporations.

They want to pay farm workers less than minimum wage and then not have to deal with immigrant issues.

This is just another way of destoying our baseline wages.

The HB1 visa program has proven that when you bring in foreign workers, the prevailing wage decreases. Everyone knows this. It increases competition for the job and corporations and Agribusiness can pay less because people are desperate.

And what really gets me is if you have a farm and are trying to make a proffit, you have to either do without hired labor or be uncompetitive with your prices. If they let one guy pay slave wages then everyone has to pay slave wages to be competititive.

[pampango]

9. Do you have a link for this story? n/t

[denverbill]

11. Hmm. That's wierd. I didn't get a prompt to enter it.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/29/3398940/kansas-agriculture-secretary-seeks.html