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Agriculture is not everyones favorite industry. Local governments have problems with its tax revenue vs. its needs for government resources (roads, utilities, public safety, and education). Non-farm neighbors object to organic odors. There is also the unkind and incorrect social stigma applied to rural residents.

However, agriculture is essential to human survival.

The Soviet Union took over the agricultural industries as its priority. The centuries-old notions of property rights and serfdom were overturned, but the government met the need for an effective system to supply food to its citizens, in theory.

Democracies went toward co-ops, granges, and university extension agents as ways to stabilize the agriculture industry. At the very least, our answers allowed more creative problem-solving while retaining the pride of individual ownership. Todays agricultural sector must keep personal flexibility in the broadest range of possible actions.

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Government must justly regulate an industry to allow fair access to the resources it needs. The 3/27 Times-News article about the Oregon Legislatures bill to open agricultural land to the chip industry began my thought process. Later, the Idaho Legislature debated a joint resolution urging our national representatives to work toward immigration reform guaranteeing enough farm workers to meet the demand in Idaho.

Idaho shares a border with Canada. But its another border, and one that doesnt physically touch Idaho, that has brought grief for the states Republican congressional delegation and the Legislature.

The bills governing water and other agricultural needs were lost in the babble of social legislation pushed forward in the Legislature this year. These subjects are critical to Idahos economic well-being. They are also essential to preserving a way of life no one should be forced to abandon. Connection with the land, nature, and creation has become a progressive agenda for urban areas that rural residents have little need for.

In the 1960s, a drive down Highway 99 through the San Joaquin Valley in California featured signs saying, Industry Welcome Here. Soon, the nations most significant swath of fertile soil became covered in concrete for industrial jobs and homes for industrial workers. An innovative strategy could have mitigated the harmful effects. Its an example of thinking about short over long-term gain.

We have discovered that quality soil captures carbon. We can all do our part in our garden and lawn. All we need is skill and information. We created the structure in the nineteen thirties: University extension services and community organization. Landowners in rural areas have the same opportunity and responsibilities.

In semi-arid regions like our Intermountain West, it is wise to consider the available land with the eye toward the best reasonable use. Can it be claimed or reclaimed to support farming or grazing? Is it a wildlife habitat? If we build industries or homes, is it possibly a good use of land less well suited for living things?

Everything depends on available water. Anything living needs it, and Idaho is leading the country in attention to water management. Our basalt aquifers (thank you, volcanoes) are renewable. Sand aquifers are harder to recharge, and the well-known Ogallala aquifer, which supports mid-American agriculture, is running dry. We may now be the Gem State, but there is a future where we are the Water State.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Immigration reform should not be used as a divisive political tool, writes Rep. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome.

This leaves us with the people who enjoy growing things. Machines will always be expensive, and they can lead us away from the soul satisfaction of life on the land. Animal husbandry is labor intensive. Domestic animals dont thrive without the care of the human they agreed to depend on eons ago. Even if we could convince urban dwellers to work on the land, there are not enough workers to fill the jobs.

Crime or illegal status is not a logical reason to ignore willing farmworkers. There are criminals in the United States, but not all of them were ever farm workers. People with Hispanic roots are on track to be a majority in the United States, but only a few are criminals or undocumented. A temporary status will sometimes work, and removing birth to any temporary resident as automatic citizenship is the answer to another objection. Amnesty will not add to our unemployment figures.

Government is paying attention to agricultures need for soil and water. Now it needs to solve the employee challenge.

Linda Brugger of Twin Falls is retired from the Air Force Reserve and a leaning Democrat. She can be reached at IdahoAuthor@outlook.com.

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BRUGGER: Agriculture needs soil, water and people - Times-News

MIAMI Ten years ago this month, Sen. Chuck Schumer declared, "We all know that our immigration system is broken, and it's time to get to work on fixing it." Sen. John McCain quoted Winston Churchill. But it was Lindsey Graham who offered the boldest prediction.

"I think 2013 is the year of immigration reform," the South Carolina Republican said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., center, speaks about immigration reform legislation outlined by the Senate's bipartisan "Gang of Eight" that would create a path for the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship on April 18, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. From left are, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Charles Schumer, Graham, R-S.C., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

It wasn't. And neither has any year since those "Gang of Eight" senators from both parties gathered in a Washington auditorium to offer hopeful pronouncements. In fact, today's political landscape has shifted so dramatically that immigrant advocates and top architects of key policies over the years fear that any hope of an immigration overhaul seems further away than ever.

Many Republicans now see calling for zero tolerance on the border as a way to animate their base supporters. Democrats have spent the last decade vacillating between stiffer border restrictions and efforts to soften and humanize immigration policy exposing deep rifts on how best to address broader problems.

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"There are big questions about whether or not anything in the immigration family anything at all has the votes to pass," said Cecilia Muoz, who served as President Barack Obama's top immigration adviser and was a senior member of Joe Biden's transition team before he entered the White House.

The last extensive package came under President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and President George H.W. Bush signed a more limited effort four years later. That means federal agents guarding the border today with tools like drones and artificial intelligence are enforcing laws written back when cellphones and the internet were novelties. Laying the problem bare in the deadliest of terms was a fire last month at a detention center on the Mexican side of the border that killed 39 migrants.

Congress came the closest to a breakthrough on immigration in 2013 with the Gang of Eight, which included Schumer, a New York Democrat who is now Senate majority leader, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Their proposal cleared the Senate that June and sought a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally and expanded work visas while tightening border security and mandating that employers verify workers' legal status.

Democrats cheered a modernized approach to immigration. Republicans were looking for goodwill within the Latino community after Obama enjoyed strong support from Hispanic voters while being reelected in 2012.

Prominent supporters of the proposal were as diverse as the powerful AFL-CIO labor union and the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There was more momentum than there had been for large immigration changes that fizzled in 2006 and 2007 under President George W. Bush.

Migrants wait along a border wall Aug. 23 after crossing from Mexico near Yuma, Ariz. President Joe Biden's administration announced in early January that it would admit up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years with authorization to work when they apply online.

Still, Republican House Speaker John Boehner gauged support for the Gang of Eight bill in the GOP-controlled chamber in January 2014 and said too many lawmakers distrusted the Obama administration. By that summer, the bill was dead.

Obama then created a program protecting from deportation migrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. The Supreme Court has previously upheld it, but the court's relatively recent 6-3 conservative majority could pose long-term threats.

Years after the creation of Obama's program, President Donald Trump called for walling off all of the nation's 2,000-mile southern border, and his administration separated migrant children from their parents and made migrants wait in Mexico while seeking U.S. asylum.

Biden endorsed a sweeping immigration package on his Inauguration Day, but it went nowhere in Congress. His administration has since loosened some Trump immigration policies and tightened others, even as his party has seen Republican support rise among Hispanic voters.

Officials have continued to enforce Title 42 pandemic-era health restrictions that allowed for migrants seeking U.S. asylum to be quickly expelled, though they are set to expire May 11. The Biden White House is also considering placing migrant families in detention centers while they wait for their asylum cases, something the Obama and Trump administrations did.

Children lie inside a pod at the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on March 30, 2021, in Donna, Texas.

Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under Obama, said "a lot of things are coming together at once," including Title 42 possibly ending, a spike in the number of South American migrants crossing through the treacherous rainforests of the Darian Gap between Colombia and Panama, and a 2024 presidential election ratcheting up the political pressure.

"Two and a half years into the administration, there really hasn't been any announcement of what is our immigration policy," Kerlikowske said. "Getting laws passed is almost impossible. But what's been the policy?"

The League of United LatinAmerican Citizens is so desperate for meaningful progress that it has begun advocating for a full moratorium of up to six months on U.S. asylum as a way of calming things at the border. Its president, Domingo Garcia, said that migrants know they are processed and allowed to remain in the U.S. for years fighting for asylum in court, and that authorities need to "turn off the faucet" to help strained border cities.

"We need a total reset," said Garcia, whose group is the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization. "I think that people on the far left are just as wrong as those who believe they should close the border and let no one in."

Biden's administration announced in early January that it would admit up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years with authorization to work and make it easier to apply online. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas argues that the new rules are designed to weaken cartels who help migrants cross into the U.S. illegally.

It appears to be working, for now. After federal authorities detained migrants more than 2.5 million times at the southern border in 2022 including more than 250,000 in December, the highest monthly total on record the number of encounters with migrants plummeted during the first two months of this year.

A migrant cries leaning on an ambulance as a person she knows is attended by medics after a fire broke out at the Mexican Immigration Detention center in Juarez on Monday, March, 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

A migrant is rushed to the hospital after a fire broke out a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

Medics give aid to a migrant who survived a fire that broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

Medics give aid to a migrant who survived a fire that broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

A migrant cries leaning on an ambulance as a person she knows is attended by medics after a fire broke out at the Mexican Immigration Detention center in Juarez on Monday, March, 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas/The El Paso Times via AP)

Forensic investigators begin the task of transporting the bodies of migrants that died after a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas/The El Paso Times via AP)

The bodies of dead migrants are covered with "space blankets" in the parking lot of a Mexican immigration detention in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

The bodies of dead migrants are covered with "space blankets" in the parking lot of a Mexican immigration detention center where doezens of migrants died after a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

A Mexican immigration officer is seen by bodies laying on the floor after a fire broke out at the Mexican Immigration Detention center in Juarez on Monday, March, 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

Forensic investigators begin the task of transporting the bodies of migrants that died after a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

Forensic investigators begin the task of transporting the bodies of migrants that died after a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

A Mexican immigration officer is seen by bodies laying on the floor after a fire broke out at the Mexican Immigration Detention center in Juarez on Monday, March, 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

Forensic investigators begin the task of transporting the bodies of migrants that died after a fire broke out at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juarez on Monday, March 27, 2023. A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country. (Omar Ornelas /The El Paso Times via AP)

The bodies of migrants lay covered after a deadly fire broke out at an immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

Paramedics carry a migrant who was wounded in a deadly fire at an immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

A soldier guards the entrance of an immigration detention center where a deadly fire broke out in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

Paramedics and security forces work amid the covered bodies of migrants who died in a fire at an immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

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Immigration reform stalled decade after Gang of 8's big push - Madison.com

Editor's note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Immigration system problems linger

Ten years ago this month, Senator Chuck Schumer declared, We all know that our immigration system is broken, and its time to get to work on fixing it. Senator John McCain quoted Winston Churchill. But it was Lindsey Graham who offered the boldest prediction. I think 2013 is the year of immigration reform, the South Carolina Republican said.

It wasnt. And neither has any year since those Gang of Eight senators from both parties gathered in a Washington auditorium to offer hopeful pronouncements. Reported by The Associated Press.

Immigration Reform Remains Stalled Decade After Gang of 8's Big Push

Relocation of Afghans continues

Inside a large building that was once used as a commercial guesthouse for foreign visitors in Kabul are numerous rooms occupied by families and individuals who are not allowed to go outside or disclose their exact location to anyone. Brought from different parts of Afghanistan, the residents are hosted in the facility before their flights to a third country where they will be processed for final relocation to the United States. Story by Akmal Dawi.

US Continues Relocating Afghans Even Under Taliban Rule

Venezuelan migrant family forges ahead

After her husband survived a fire that killed dozens of migrants at a detention center in northern Mexico, Venezuelan Viangly Infante crossed into the United States on Saturday, in search of new opportunities for her three children. Reuters reports.

Survivor of Mexico Detention Fire, His Family Cross Into US

Thousands head back to Puerto Rico yearly

Achieving economic stability is typically the main reason that many Puerto Ricans migrate to the U.S. mainland. At the same time, thousands return to Puerto Rico annually, describing their homecoming as "a dream come true." After 22 years abroad, married doctors Sheila Perez Colon and Lionel Lazaro Collazo decided to practice medicine in Puerto Rico. Story by Salome Ramirez.

Many Puerto Ricans Leaving US Mainland

Problems of undocumented in Sudan

More than 10 years after South Sudan split from Sudan, as many as 1.2 million ethnic South Sudanese could be living in Sudan without citizenship for either country, the U.N. refugee agency says. In this report from Sudans capital, Khartoum, reporter Henry Wilkins meets undocumented people and discovers they have problems accessing work, education and medical care.

Over 1M Undocumented Ethnic South Sudanese Thought to Be in Sudan

Women face junta's brutality in Myanmar, activist says

A Myanmar human rights activist told VOA in a recent interview that the ruling junta in Myanmar is using rape and other violence against women as a bigger part of its campaign to crack down against opposition groups. Story by Ingyin Naing.

Women Seen Targeted by Myanmar Forces With 'Rape and Other Violence'

In brief

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updates guidance on administrative naturalization ceremony venues.

Go here to see the original:
Immigration News Roundup: April 1-7 - Voice of America - VOA News

MIAMI (AP) Ten years ago this month, Sen. Chuck Schumer declared, We all know that our immigration system is broken, and its time to get to work on fixing it. Sen. John McCain quoted Winston Churchill. But it was Lindsey Graham who offered the boldest prediction.

I think 2013 is the year of immigration reform, the South Carolina Republican said.

It wasnt. And neither has any year since those Gang of Eight senators from both parties gathered in a Washington auditorium to offer hopeful pronouncements. In fact, todays political landscape has shifted so dramatically that immigrant advocates and top architects of key policies over the years fear that any hope of an immigration overhaul seems further away than ever.

Many Republicans now see calling for zero tolerance on the border as a way to animate their base supporters. Democrats have spent the last decade vacillating between stiffer border restrictions and efforts to soften and humanize immigration policy exposing deep rifts on how best to address broader problems.

There are big questions about whether or not anything in the immigration family anything at all has the votes to pass, said Cecilia Muoz, who served as President Barack Obamas top immigration adviser and was a senior member of Joe Bidens transition team before he entered the White House.

The last extensive package came under President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and President George H.W. Bush signed a more limited effort four years later. That means federal agents guarding the border today with tools like drones and artificial intelligence are enforcing laws written back when cellphones and the internet were novelties. Laying the problem bare in the deadliest of terms was a fire last month at a detention center on the Mexican side of the border that killed 39 migrants.

Congress came the closest to a breakthrough on immigration in 2013 with the Gang of Eight, which included Schumer, a New York Democrat who is now Senate majority leader, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Their proposal cleared the Senate that June and sought a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally and expanded work visas while tightening border security and mandating that employers verify workers legal status.

Democrats cheered a modernized approach to immigration. Republicans were looking for goodwill within the Latino community after Obama enjoyed strong support from Hispanic voters while being reelected in 2012.

Prominent supporters of the proposal were as diverse as the powerful AFL-CIO labor union and the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There was more momentum than there had been for large immigration changes that fizzled in 2006 and 2007 under President George W. Bush.

Still, Republican House Speaker John Boehner gauged support for the Gang of Eight bill in the GOP-controlled chamber in January 2014 and said too many lawmakers distrusted the Obama administration. By that summer, the bill was dead.

Obama then created a program protecting from deportation migrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. The Supreme Court has previously upheld it, but the courts relatively recent 6-3 conservative majority could pose long-term threats.

Years after the creation of Obamas program, President Donald Trump called for walling off all of the nations 2,000-mile southern border, and his administration separated migrant children from their parents and made migrants wait in Mexico while seeking U.S. asylum.

Biden endorsed a sweeping immigration package on his Inauguration Day, but it went nowhere in Congress. His administration has since loosened some Trump immigration policies and tightened others, even as his party has seen Republican support rise among Hispanic voters.

Officials have continued to enforce Title 42 pandemic-era health restrictions that allowed for migrants seeking U.S. asylum to be quickly expelled, though they are set to expire May 11. The Biden White House is also considering placing migrant families in detention centers while they wait for their asylum cases, something the Obama and Trump administrations did.

Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under Obama, said a lot of things are coming together at once, including Title 42 possibly ending, a spike in the number of South American migrants crossing through the treacherous rainforests of the Darian Gap between Colombia and Panama, and a 2024 presidential election ratcheting up the political pressure.

Two and a half years into the administration, there really hasnt been any announcement of what is our immigration policy, Kerlikowske said. Getting laws passed is almost impossible. But whats been the policy?

The League of United Latin American Citizens is so desperate for meaningful progress that it has begun advocating for a full moratorium of up to six months on U.S. asylum as a way of calming things at the border. Its president, Domingo Garcia, said that migrants know they are processed and allowed to remain in the U.S. for years fighting for asylum in court, and that authorities need to turn off the faucet to help strained border cities.

We need a total reset, said Garcia, whose group is the nations oldest Latino civil rights organization. I think that people on the far left are just as wrong as those who believe they should close the border and let no one in.

Bidens administration announced in early January that it would admit up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years with authorization to work and make it easier to apply online. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas argues that the new rules are designed to weaken cartels who help migrants cross into the U.S. illegally.

Mayorkas said recently that officials aim to create lawful, safe and orderly pathways for people to reach the United States to claim asylum and to cut out the smuggling organizations.

It appears to be working, for now. After federal authorities detained migrants more than 2.5 million times at the southern border in 2022 including more than 250,000 in December, the highest monthly total on record the number of encounters with migrants plummeted during the first two months of this year.

But fewer crossings has created a backlog of thousands of migrants hoping to seek U.S. asylum waiting on the Mexican side of the border. Last months fire at a Mexican government facility began amid a protest by migrants fearing deportation. Some of those being held said theyd been attempting to apply online when they were rounded up by Mexican authorities.

Meanwhile, warmer months often see major increases in the number of migrants at the U.S. border. And activists say that Biden has sent mixed signals by continuing to enforce Title 42 and considering reopening family detention centers a possibility that even top Democrats are now decrying.

We urge you to learn from the mistakes of your predecessors and abandon any plans to implement this failed policy, Schumer and 17 other Senate Democrats recently wrote in a letter to Biden that called family detention policies morally reprehensible and ineffective as an immigration management tool.

Republicans have blasted Bidens border crisis and, since Trumps rise, made gains among voters in some heavily Latino areas. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely expected to be the leading alternative to Trump in next years Republican presidential primary, flew migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts, arguing that Democrats around the country were ignoring the crush of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

In Miami, Nery Lopez was among a group of activists who recently mobilized to oppose a state bill that would punish people who transport migrants in the country illegally. Now 27, she was brought to the U.S. as a 4-year-old from Mexico and is protected from deportation by the Obama-era program.

Lopez said advocates were counting on the Biden administration to counter Republicans hard-line immigration policies.

People feel defeated. I feel defeated, she said. Its like we are going into the same cycle.

___

Weissert reported from Washington.

View original post here:
Immigration reform stalled decade after Gang of 8's big push - The Associated Press

Dairy prices and substitute labeling, crop insurance, support for specialty crops, soil health, nutrition programs, agricultural research, inflation, and invasive species were all topics that farmers in the region brought to Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Tuesday at the Old Courthouse in Batavia,

Tenney, who has been representing Genesee County as part of the redrawn NY-24 since January, made Batavia the first stop on a tour of the district to discuss potential provisions in the 2023 Farm Bill.

Congress passes a new Farm Bill every five years. The Farm Bill is most notably known for providing crop insurance and other assistance to farmers to deal with the nature-driven inherent risks of agriculture and the trade barriers that often make selling their commodities more difficult. But it also deals with a host of other issues related to farming.

While all of those topics were discussed, the topic most often broached by speakers on Tuesday was immigration. Farmers are tired of seeing their workers fear deportation, and they want to increase the labor supply to help them remain productive.

"I've been involved with immigration and immigration issues since the Reagan administration," said Kim Zuber, owner of Zuber Farms in Byron. "Our first Hispanic employee,back in 1980, the first kid we got was 21. Hehad a green card, and he became a citizen through the Reagan administration. I've been in Washington many, many times, and this is apolitical football by the left and right, and we pay the price. They practically make criminals of us on the question of papers. We are sick of being in the middle of this political football. We really would appreciate it if somebody would stand up and say, 'Enough.' These people are our fellow human beings. Sure, surely, bad people come across the border, but the people who work on these farms are supporting themselves and their families. They're good people. They got families and kids just like us. It's just sad. We are sick of being the football between the left and the right."

Natasha Sutherland, from Stein Farms in Le Roy, was the first speaker of the day and, after talking at length about dairy prices and the regulations that control them, opened the immigration discussion by noting that there are people entering the country on a daily basis, risking their lives, to provide for their families.Often these farmworkers are supporting families they left behind.

"These people deserve to live and work without fear of deportation," Sutherland said.

The next speaker, Pat McCormick, reiterated some of Sutherland's points.

"We need to improve," he said. "We need to be able to get the farmworkers that we need here and have the paperwork they need so that they're not afraid to go to the hospital and not afraid to go to the grocery store."

He added, "They are a vital partof our community and are a vital support to their people back home, so we need to fix that problem."

Another farmer spoke about one of his workers who witnesseda murder and was initially afraid to speak to authorities for fear of deportation. Eventually, he did provide evidence that helped get the killer convicted, but the farmer said farmworkers shouldn't have to face that kind of fear.

"It brings people to tears," he said. "These guys and girls are people. They're one of us. They deserve more respect than we give them."

Tenney Supports Immigration ReformIn her closing remarks, Tenney told the farmers she heard their concerns about immigration and is seeking to address it. In an interview with The Batavian after the meeting, Tenney said she supports providing a pathway for undocumented farmworkers to stay in the country without fear and that she would particularly like to help dairy farmers help their workers here on H2A visas stay in the country all year long. She also supportsan increase in immigration from Mexico and South America so long as it's legal, protects the safety of Americans, and ensures farmers are getting workers who work hard and obey the laws of the country.

She acknowledged the need for more workers but said it's also essential -- especially in New York where farmers are facing increased costs because of new overtime rules and the threat of unionization -- to lower the costs for farmers to retain the workers they have.

"These visa programs are really just a bureaucratic disaster right now for them," Tenney said.

She explained, "What we're trying to do in the Farmworker Modernization Act is come up with a way to make (the H2A visa program) a year-round program, to make the touchback point, the consulate of (their home)country, which would be in New York State. That touchback would be to go and renew the visas and make it a more streamlined process. We would still go through all the criminal records. The farmers wouldbe given some security as to the types of people that are coming towork in their operations. And it would provide us with some oversight as opposed to now, where we sort of have people in the shadows. We want to make sure good, hardworking people who are willing to come here, do the hard work, and that we can actually do it in a more streamlined fashion that is less cost costly to the farmers."

Asked about the fact that oftentimes Republican politicians oppose providing a pathway for undocumented workers to remain in the country, who are the kind of experienced workers farmers want to keep. Tenney said she is sympathetic to the frustration expressed by those views because she personally knows people who have waited 20 years to come into the country and become citizens through a documented, legal process.

But she also understands that people who came here to work and are working, are the kind of people we should want in the country.

"They're not coming here across the border to human traffic, to traffic drugs, to engage in surveillance," Tenney said. After accusing the Chinese of sending people to the U.S. to engage in surveillance, she continued, "We want to make sure that we provide a legal path so that the farmers are protected, the farmworkers are protected, and we know that the people who are working on these farms are productive and are no threat to American citizens in any way. They will ultimately at least have a path to legalization if they're not already legal."

Tenney is aware of the shortage of workers in the U.S. economy and understands the complexity around the issue of a large number of prime-working-age men not joining the labor force and said, yes, immigrants can help bridge that gap.

"We are seeing a great need, not just in farming, but across every sector," Tenney said. "We need people to come and work and create growth in our economy. Without growth, we're not going to deal with our deficits, we're not going to deal with the needs that we have."

While she supported theFarmworker Modernization Act, she thinks Republicans can and will come up with a better reform bill.

"Republicans are for allowing legal immigration," Tenney said. "We want the rule of law to be respected, and I think a lot of illegal immigrants don't know any better, to be honest with you, because they're being trafficked."

She blamed cartels for pushing illegal immigrants, including children, into the country in order to disrupt border security, even on the northern border.

"Nothing is more disheartening than my visit to the border and seeing just how much control the cartels have," Tenney said. "The confusion, the chaos, the large numbers coming across, the lack of ability for the Customs and Border Patrol to really handle this (is disheartening)."

There is a middle ground on immigration reform, she said, that doesn't involve lawlessness. There can be a sensible plan that respects the rule of law, and she believes that is what farmers are looking for.

Some economists project the U.S. is short about one million workers. Tenney said she isn't opposed to a million immigrants entering the company to fill jobs so long as it is legal.

"That's something that we have to negotiate, butI think there is avery few numbers of people who are against having more people come into the countrylegally," Tenney said. "There's a very small number that may think this is a burden on taxpayers. I look at (immigrants)as people who are going to produce growth, and if we're producing growth, and we have a larger output and more labor, you're going to see us prosper. We're going to be able to cut down our deficit and actually bring more prosperity. I see growth as the answer."

Photos by Howard Owens. Top photo: Rep. Claudia Tenney speaking during opening remarks.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley spoke briefly about the budget deadlock in Albany and how the deadlock is costing taxpayers money.

"They are intransigent," Hawley said. "They are refusing to do anything about bail reform or spending $240 billion a year of our taxpayer money. Every day that we were in Albany, 213 senators and assembly members cost you and me $40,000 a day. We've been there six days looking at not one budget bill, that's a quarter of a million dollars. Now, that pales in comparison to $240 billion, but a penny is a penny, and a dollar is a dollar,and there is a quarter of a million dollars being paid to individualsgetting nothing done. It is tragic."

Natasha Sutherland, Stein Farms.

Seating in the Old Courthouse was nearly filled with farmers from throughout the region, most of whom did not speak during the meeting. Among those in attendancewas Daniel Swyers, a dairy farmer from Perry.

While Tenney asks a farmer a follow-up question, County Legislative Chair Shelley Stein listens.

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