Michael Barone correctly
calls immigration reform the new third rail of politics, but his "Immigration
Reform: The New Third Rail" (op-ed, April 16) omits the serious
quandary it creates for the agricultural industry, and consequently
those who enjoy a domestic supply of fresh produce (i.e., every
American).
We want and need a legal
workforce. No American raises a child to be a field worker, so your
fresh tomatoes, avocados, celery, etc., are planted and harvested by
foreign workers who come to this country using false documents. Our
country's current guest-worker program is inadequate, a bureaucratic
nightmare to use, as well as impractical for an industry with a seasonal
employment schedule ruled by the erratic nature of the weather.
Immigration reform is not a political issue for us, but a practical one.
The solution is the AgJOBS bill introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D., Calif.), co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) and 21
others, and supported by growers and the United Farm Workers.
Agriculture is the exception in this political debate. AgJOBS is the
answer.
Tom Nassif
President and CEO
Western Growers
Irvine, Calif.
I'm angry with the
failure of politicians to learn the lessons of Ronald Reagan's 1986
"once in a lifetime" amnesty program. Overloaded visa petition
processing systems and legal challenges inappropriately increased
immigrant numbers exponentially.
This is not rocket
science. History suggests the "estimated 12 million" undocumented
workers will, by fraud, metamorphose to 25 million new citizen-voters.
The reward for Congress failing to legislate an employment system which
provides adequate numbers of legal workers, supported by more than
lip-service interior enforcement, will be the next 30 to 50 million
illegal workers, all hiding in plain view.
Tim Houghtaling
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 