The immigration debate is likely to heat up once again, especially with the new Farm Bill on the docket this year. Producers in the Northeast made their opinions known during a recent visit to DC.
Northeast producers went to Washington last week to campaign for a new Senate bill that would create a guest worker program to grant as many as 1.5 million farm laborers legal status to keep working in the United States.
A similar proposal was defeated last year after legislators stonewalled immigration reform. But farm lobbyists are betting the stand-alone bill – co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho – will find new supporters in the Democrat-controlled 110th Congress.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Austin Perez, an immigration specialist with the American Farm Bureau. He noted however, that neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have made immigration reform a top priority.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has warned labor shortages could cause $5 billion in losses to the agriculture industry. The Farm Credit Associations of New York, in a statement supporting immigration reform, said New York could lose more than 900 farms over the next two years because of the labor shortages.