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WASHINGTON, July 12, 2017 Witnesses and lawmakers at a House Agriculture Committee hearing todayshowed broad support for immigration reform and mechanization research to address labor shortages faced by specialty crop producers.

Consumer demand is increasing but natural resources remain fixed and the labor supply is shrinking, said Rep. Collin Peterson, the panels ranking Democrat. Peterson represents Minnesota, a state that produces large amounts of specialty crops like apples, pumpkins, strawberries and sweet corn.

Specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, represent just 1 percent of farm bill funding, according to Paul Wegner, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. But another witness, Andrew LaVigne, CEO of the American Seed Trade Association, said specialty crops have an impressive farm gate value of $11 billion.

Although the industry is ripe with challenges, witness Gary Wishnatzki, owner of Wish Farms located in Plant City, Florida, said availability of labor is the greatest of these challenges.

Wegner echoed Wishnatzki: While it is outside the jurisdiction of this committee, we ask first and foremost that Congress move rapidly toward allowing a legal workforce in the United States to guarantee that future immigrants who desire to work in American agriculture be allowed entry.

Additionally, Wegner said he strongly opposes mandatory E-Verify, an online system that provides immigration status which is used as a prescreening for hundreds of thousands of employers. E-Verify has been voluntary since 1996, but the Trump FY 2018 budget calls for implementation of mandatory E-Verify.

Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, noted that the House Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over immigration reform and that he is in conversation with that panels chairman, Bob Goodlatte R-Va., about his proposed reform plan. In his concluding statement, Conaway emphasized that the impact of an E-Verify mandate is not lost on Mr. Goodlatte or the rest of us in terms of how we implement that.

Wegner told the lawmakers that mechanization may be the industrys future with robots harvesting specialty crops that are currently collected by humans. If we dont aggressively invest in the development of new technologies, the consequence will be to lose a large share of our nations specialty crop production, Wegner said.

Witness Kevin Murphy, CEO of Driscoll's Inc., the California-based berry producer, said that private industry is currently spearheading research for mechanization, and he encouraged the government to support public-private partnerships and innovation in the next farm bill.

But until mechanization eliminates the need for people to hand-pick crops, immigration reform is a top priority to ensure an adequate and legal labor force, the witnesses said.

(Conaways opening statement and the written testimony of all witnesses can be found by clicking here.)

Link:
Witnesses push immigration reform, mechanization research at Ag panel hearing - Agri-Pulse

Editor's note: This piece was originally published in the Indianapolis Star.

Most Americans get it: We cant continue to reward people who come to our country illegally, while those who work hard and play by the rules struggle to get ahead. What our tax and immigration policies need is a return to common sense.

Take our tax credit system. Right now, billions of dollars in refundabletax credits are being paid out to illegal immigrants. Thats because of a loophole in the Child Tax Credit program that allows this benefit to be claimed without a Social Security Number.

The cost of this broken policy has fallen squarely on the shoulders of the people its designed to help hardworking American families. And the numbers are astounding.

AU.S. Treasury Inspector Generalreportestimated that up to $7.1 billion was being paid out each year to illegal immigrants and individuals illegally claiming children through the Child Tax Credit.For context, thats equivalent to the State of Indianas entire annual budget for K-12 education.

Whats worse, alocal TV news investigationin Indiana found that illegal immigrants were claiming the credit for children and other relatives who didnt even live in the United States, sometimes claiming up to 10 or 12 dependents at a time.

A U.S. Treasury Inspector General report estimated that up to $7.1 billion was being paid out each year to illegal immigrants and individuals illegally claiming children through the Child Tax Credit.

The Child Tax Credit is supposed to provide low- and middle-income Americans relief up to $1,000 per child to help support their families. But instead, billions in tax dollars are flying out the door, running up our debt and padding the pockets of those who game the system.

To close this senseless loophole and protect U.S. taxpayers, I filed legislation that would require individuals to have a Social Security Number that is valid for employment before they can claim the Child Tax Credit. This idea has gained the support of President Trump, and he included my proposal in his budget request to Congress.

But closing the Child Tax Credit loophole is just the start. There are countless other examples of broken and backwards policy at the federal level that have real-world consequences for Americans.

Passing broad tax and immigration reform in our country to fix these issues is long overdue, and Washington must deliver.

With President Trumps leadership, Congress is working toward comprehensive tax reform that eliminates wasteful loopholes, cuts taxes for everyday Americans, and restores our countrys competitiveness.

No less of a priority is taking action to build a wall, secure the border and pass meaningful immigration reform. Its time for policies that reward law-abiding citizens and help our economy grow.

This work has already begun. The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to combat sanctuary city policies that shield criminal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement, as well as legislation to strengthen penalties for deported felons who return to our shores.

With a return to common sense, we can steer our country back to the rule of law and finally address illegal immigration in the United States.

Rep. Luke Messer serves as Congressman for Indiana's 6th Congressional District.

Read more:
Tax reform and immigration policy - time for a return to common sense - Fox News

That is huge news for immigration reformers because a legal wipeout of the 2012Deferred Actionfor Childhood Arrivals amnesty for younger illegal aliens wouldpressure Democrats to accept pro-American immigration reforms.

The reforms could include mandatory use of the E-verify system to block company hiring of illegals, a reduction to the annual inflow of 1 million legal immigrants and 1 million contract workers (such as the H-1B white-collar professionals), plus extra funding for the border wall. President Donald Trump has already sketched out plans for a merit-based reform that could help raise the productivity and income of Americans, especially the four million young Americans who join the labor market each year.

According to Politico:

Kelly told the lawmakers [on July 12] that although he personally supports DACA, he cant guarantee that the administration would defend it in court. He also said that hed consulted attorneys who told him the program wouldnt survive a legal challenge.

Its not a pretty picture, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who attended the meeting, told reporters. The legal authorities that hes spoken to suggest that DACA cannot be sustained legally. We have a different view.

The secretary declined to take questions after the meeting, but a department spokesperson confirmed accounts from lawmakers

Its not a pretty picture, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who attended the meeting, told reporters. The legal authorities that hes spoken to suggest that DACA cannot be sustained legally. We have a different view.

Rep. Michelle Lujn Grisham, who chairs the Hispanic caucus, urged Kelly to support the amnesty from the pending lawsuit. We believe there is sufficient legal discretion in the current law to allow to continue to protect DACA and Dreamers, we believe that it would be much stronger if the department would say publicly and take a position, which is their job, if thats what theyre saying to us, she said, according to TheHill.com.

Pro-amnesty Democrats reacted with alarm to the possible repatriation of the so-called young Dreamer migrants. A statement from Rep. Luis Gutierrez declared:

Kelly was basically telling us DACA is facing a death sentence. They actually want to take millions of people who are documented with our own government make them undocumented, and then go after them and their familiesSec. Kelly says it is up to Congress, but his party is the obstacle standing in the way of a modern immigration system

Trump, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and Kelly want to take 800,000 DREAMers with DACA and hundreds of thousands with [temporary residency] who are registered with the government and in compliance with the law and make them into criminals, felons, and deportees in the next few months. Anyone with a conscience who thinks legal immigration is an integral part of who we are as a country just got called to action.

The threat of deportation if Democrats dont cut a deal was included in a Washington Post article, which reported:

This is what hes being told by different attorneys, that if it goes to court it might not survive, DHS spokesman David Lapan said. If Congress does not pass a bill to protect the program, he added, theyre leaving it in the hands of the courts to make a decision.

White House officials are already touting their plans for a merit-based immigration reform led by pro-Americans Senators, Sen. Tom Cotton and Sen. David Purdue. The bill would try to half the annual inflow of immigrants, so boosting wages for Americans.

Pro-American reformers said ending DACA can help the United States and immigrants home countries. DACA represents the politics Americans are tired of, saidDale Wilcox, Executive Director & General Counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute. He added:

DACA-pushers missed their mark because the best thing for these kids isnt to stay here and push down blue-collar wages, but to return to Latin American and reform it. Ending DACA will help them deal with whats really the root of the problem: corruption south of the border.

The issue has become critical since a group of GOP Attorneys General announced last month that they would extend their successful Texas lawsuit which defeated Obamas 2014 DAPA amnesty to include the 2012 DACA amnesty. We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the [2012] DACA program Just like [the 2014] DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress, said a June 29 letter from the group to Kelly.

The group set a September 5 deadline for when they will extend their lawsuit to include the 2012 DACA amnesty, which has provided work permits and Social Security numbers to roughly 685,000 illegal immigrants who crossed the border as youths or children.

The groups threat against DACA followed a mid-June decision by Kelly to quit the courtroom defense of Obamas 2014 DAPA amnesty, which would have provided work permits to roughly 4.5 million parents of U.S. citizen children.

In his June letter announcing the end of DAPA, Kelly hinted that DACA could share the same fate as DAPA, saying I remind our officers that (1) deferred action, as an act of prosecutorial discretion, may only be granted on a case-by-case basis, and (2) such a grant may be terminated at any time at the agencys discretion.

Manypolls showthat Americans are very generous, they do welcome individual immigrants, and they do want to like the idea of immigration. But the polls also show that most Americans are increasingly worried that large-scale legal immigration will change their country and disadvantage themselves and their children.

The currentannual floodofforeign laborspikes profits and stock valuesbycutting salariesfor manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, reduceshigh-tech investment, increasesstate and local tax burdens, hurtskids schoolsandcollege education, and sidelinesat least 5 million marginalized Americansand their families.

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The rest is here:
DHS John Kelly to Dems: Accept Immigration Compromise or Watch DACA Die - Breitbart News

Rosa Sabido, now receiving sanctuary in a Mancos church since her last application to stay in the country was denied, is not an example of problems caused by uncontrolled immigration. For the past 30 years, she has been gainfully employed, has paid taxes and has been an upstanding member of the community.

She is, though, the face of one large and often-undiscussed group of immigrants: those who have contributed to their community and the economy and who have tried to follow the rules that would allow them to remain in this country legally, but who, for a variety of reasons some logical and some arcane have come up short. These are the intended beneficiaries of immigration reform, which has languished on the national agenda for years. Unfortunately, a nuanced view of the complex issue, necessary for true and lasting progress, does not fit well into campaign speeches.

The United States gains no specific benefit by deporting Sabido. It would be better served with a sensible immigration policy that focused on identifying, locating and deporting those who are a danger to the country, and at the same time, dealing realistically with those whose only crime is being undocumented.

The problem with immigration is not only the behavior of individual immigrants, it is the effect of their aggregate number, and the specific issue for those like Sabido is not that they are causing trouble; its that their legal status does not allow them to stay.

Laws necessarily must be written in ways that cannot address every individuals circumstances, even though Sabidos legal circumstance indeed seems unfair. That she narrowly missed at least two opportunities that would have paved the way for permanent residency, including President Ronald Reagans broad path to citizenship, is sad but ultimately irrelevant; wherever a line is drawn, some people will fall just outside it. The law is the law, and selective enforcement without legal reform has contributed to the immigration mess that now exists.

The Mancos United Methodist Church has shown impressive caring and courage in shielding Sabido from a law that they believe is wrong or is being applied unfairly, and in taking a stand in opposition to the law. President Donald Trump has made clear that he disapproves of IRS regulations that penalize religious organizations from expressing political opinions, and although he surely did not intend it to play out in this way, the logical extension of that is for congregations to act on their beliefs. Kudos to this body for doing so.

Churches have no special legal status that exempts their premises from enforcement actions, only a tradition of being respected. The hands-off policy will not last much longer, although when ICE agents are ordered to breach a religious sanctuary, expect them to be in pursuit of someone far less appealing than Sabido.

This kind of sanctuary is not available to all who might wish to use it, and it is not a broad solution to the immigration dilemma. Elsewhere, families are being split, crops rot unpicked and some of the immigrants the president termed bad hombres evade deportation.

The true solution is reform, and Sabido and the church sheltering her have drawn attention to that need. This is one way change begins to happen, and that change is badly needed.

See the original post:
Rosa Sabido: Immigration reform must address cases like hers - The Journal

Increased immigration enforcement has been one of the hallmarks of the Trump administration, with federal agents directed to seek the deportation of just about anyone they find in the country illegally no matter how long the person might have lived here or how deep the ties to family and community. In the first 100 days after the presidents inauguration, immigration arrests climbed nearly 40% over the previous year, a pace that will almost certainly increase if Congress accedes to President Trumps request to hire an additional 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be assigned to the nations interior, and another 5,000 Border Patrol agents to work within 100 miles of the border.

Those buying into Trumps view of illegal immigrants as rapists, murderers and job stealers have no doubt been cheered by the enforcement effort, and they probably arent bothered by the rush to expand detention space to house those facing deportation hearings. But even they should recognize that capturing and incarcerating people is only part of the equation.

While the government under President Obama and now Trump has been ramping up immigration enforcement and detention, it has not invested a parallel amount of money in expanding the immigration courts capacity to handle the cases. Spending on immigration courts increased only 74% from 2003-2015 while enforcement spending went up 105%. Trumps 2018 budget would increase the total number of judicial positions, but its not clear if that will become law and for the moment the backlog of cases is continuing to grow.

At the end of September, the number of pending immigration cases stood at 516,031, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. By the end of May, that backlog had jumped to 598,943 cases, which have been pending for an average of 670 days each. New York City has the biggest backlog (78,670 cases), followed by Los Angeles (57,090).

Making matters worse, the Trump administration has temporarily reassigned judges to detention centers in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to handle cases primarily involving recent border-crossers. The problem with that is that fewer people are getting caught at the border these days, so moving judges there makes little sense. Why then is it happening? The answer: Optics. Sending judges to the border looks like a commitment to stronger and more serious enforcement, when in reality its a Potemkin effort that exacerbates backlogs in the courts from which the judges are transferred. At the same time, immigration lawyers say government attorneys have lately become tougher in their cases, taking harder lines with immigrants and reopening cases that had been suspended, adding more drag on the system.

This enormous backlog has real-life consequences. People in detention centers or jails are spending more time incarcerated as they await hearings on whether they will be allowed to remain in the country. For those with legitimate requests for asylum or other relief from deportation, the delays prolong uncertainty about whether they have found a sanctuary.

This should not make the anti-illegal immigration folks happy. If people arent getting deported but are just stuck in limbo in the immigration system, then Trumps ramped-up enforcement program is a chimera. Those immigrants who should be found ineligible to remain in the country because of criminal pasts or other disqualifications wind up, in effect, with open-ended reprieves.

The system is not working well for anybody except, perhaps, the operators of private prisons and local jails with ICE contracts that handle most of the detained immigrants. For a president who prides himself on his business and managerial acumen, this is a grotesquely failed approach to management.

Instead of taking this piecemeal approach to immigration enforcement, the administration should work with Congress to develop comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would create a path to citizenship for those who have established roots in our communities while tightening up enforcement at the border and tackling visa overstays. The Republican Party controls the White House and Congress. It has no excuses for not getting this done.

The Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2017

Read the original post:
What others say: Administration must take steps toward immigration reform - Kenai Peninsula Online