Congressman Chris Cannon visited Provo Wednesday to discuss the immigration reform policy with Utah's agricultural employers. Cannon has been working on a solution to the publicly polarized immigration debate and introduced a new bill, currently being drafted in the Senate to solve some of the issues.
The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act, if passed, would help adjust the green card status of certain foreign agricultural workers - giving the opportunity to become legal U.S. citizens after the work ends - as well as providing a stable, legal agricultural workforce, Cannon said.
The Utah agricultural industry continues to experience labor shortages every year, causing their crops to rot because of improper harvesting. This costs farmers and the U.S. economy millions of dollars each year.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Web site, there are estimates that say as much as 1/2 of the nation's farm and ranch family's 1 million hired laborers are not authorized to work in the U.S.
"The current immigration system we have now is the biggest corporate-bureau organization in the history of mankind, and it is ineffective," Cannon said.
If introduced, the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act will change the current agricultural guest worker program. The federal government's H-2A visa program allows companies to import foreign workers on a temporary basis for agriculture jobs after proving they can't get U.S. citizens to fill them. Visas are granted for the duration of the worker's seasonal employment, or periods up to one year, and employers can renew visas annually for up to three years, according to Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.
"It is a failure of government to appropriately and necessarily police our borders and devise and cause to work a reasonable, flexible, transparent guest worker program," Craig said.
Cannon acknowledged that steps have been taken to provide new border security, but is pushing for more legislation.
"Companies should go to jail for cheating on their taxes, not for employing illegal immigrants they don't know about," Cannon said. "It is the federal governments responsibility to identify who has the visas and who doesn't. Businesses should not have to deal with that."
For more information, visit Senator Larry Craig's page at http://craig.senate.gov/keyport.cfm
Copyright Brigham Young University 12 Apr 2007
