Opinion: Taking A Stand On Immigration Reform

It’s no secret that a lot of really smart people are predicting tough times ahead for America’s vegetable growers unless we get some sort of new guest worker program. A truly viable guest worker program, that is. In other words, not H-2A.

The current system is unfair to agriculture. To whom is it fair? Baseball, according to a terrific op-ed piece by the chief of Western Growers, Tom Nassif, in late March. Nassif cites Detroit Tigers’ slugger Miguel Cabrera as an example. While he spends spring and summer in the U.S. playing ball, Cabrera winters in his native Venezuela. In other words, he’s a guest worker.

Now, you could make the argument that to be fair, Cabrera should be immediately stripped of his guest worker privileges and deported. In fact, as a native-born Minnesotan and devoted fan of the currently last-place Twins, the same division as the Tigers, I’m tempted.
However, I’m also a fan of agriculture, and in fairness to the farm industry, which as Nassif notes has a value several times that of Major League Baseball, let’s treat farmworkers as we do ballplayers. I love baseball, but I can survive without it. Not so with food.

Make Politicians Earn Support

So how do we get a viable guest worker program for agriculture? We need support in Congress. The problem is that many of our elected representatives are reluctant to offend immigration opponents. However, it’s members of the party that’s generally regarded as pro-business, the GOP, that are most reluctant, Nassif notes.

“It’s no surprise that Republicans are more skittish than Democrats to do anything about illegal immigration, even when it hurts business and industry,” he writes in a recent opinion piece. “For too many years the Republican Party has used the issue of illegal immigration to fight and win primary elections.”

Nassif states that Western Growers commissioned a poll showing 70% of likely American voters would actually support a new program for farmworkers. More surprising, that includes 74% of Republicans and 71% of strong Tea Party supporters.

Like most agricultural associations that make political endorsements, Western Growers typically endorses Republicans who favor fewer regulations. Also like most others, it doesn’t make endorsements until after the primaries.

I think such grower associations are making a mistake. Sure, you might make a few enemies by making an endorsement in the primary. I’m sure many would argue it’s not worth the risk.

But viewed another way, perhaps it’s a greater to risk to refrain from taking a stand. It’s nice not to make waves, but is it really worth putting your business at risk? And make no mistake, the risk is real. There are economists who believe that U.S. commercial vegetable production on a large scale, as is currently practiced, will become a thing of the past.
Then you might not have any enemies,
but not too many friends, either.