ALAN CHOATE - Daily Herald | Posted: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 11:00 pm
Congress should address immigration reform by the end of the year, and it's expected to include provisions to help farmers find the workers they need.
That's what U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said Wednesday to a group of agricultural producers in Provo, all of whom are struggling to find the workers they need in a time of low unemployment in the state.
Robert McMullin of Payson said he needs as many as 175 workers at a time to harvest his 800 acres of cherries, peaches and apples. But that labor isn't available locally, and even migrant labor is tight.
"We've been in the migrant stream" that moves workers from California to Utah to the Northwest, he said. "That stream is getting less and less. Those folks are getting full-time, year-round type jobs, they're not in that migrant stream like they used to be."
Even year-round producers are struggling. Scott Patton, who manages a Millard County egg farm with 1.5 million hens, 336 million eggs annually and 70 employees, has trouble finding workers for existing jobs -- and he wants to expand.
"For about four years now we've been short on labor every day," he said. "This is a problem that needs to be addressed nationwide. It's time."
Congress knows that, said Cannon. In fact, he said Republican inaction on immigration reform when they controlled Congress was one of the factors contributing to voters transferring control to Democrats last November -- and the Democrats don't want to make the same mistake.
"The Democrats realize they have to move on this," he said.
Wednesday's discussion focused on what's known as the AgJobs bill, sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.
It would streamline and expand an existing program that brings agricultural workers in from abroad. It also would offer a one-time chance for experienced farm workers here illegally to gain legal status.
At least half of the 1.6 million agricultural workers in the country are illegal workers, according to one U.S. Department of Labor survey. Some estimates put that number at 75 percent or higher.
"We're in a cycle here we can change if we pass a law that works," Cannon said.
The AgJobs bill will probably be rolled into a larger immigration reform package that the Senate is expected to debate, and possibly pass, next month. The House of Representatives will consider its version.
"There will be a lot of wrangling," Cannon said. If nothing is passed by the end of September, he added, presidential primary politics probably will preclude any action.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.