Farm Bureau cast doubts on immigration reform

WENATCHEE -- Immigration reform is a top priority of the American Farm Bureau, but it probably won’t be a top priority of President Barack Obama’s administration or a more-Democratic Congress, a bureau official says.

Patrick O’Brien, a senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington, D.C., spoke Monday at the fourth annual Washington Farm Bureau Labor Conference at the Stanley Civic Center. The conference preceded the Washington Farm Bureau’s 89th annual meeting, which runs today through Thursday at the center.

The meeting is rotated among Washington cities. This is the first time it’s been held in Wenatchee since 1996.

In an interview prior to his Monday speech, O’Brien said the Obama administration and Congress have more pressing issues to deal with than immigration reform — the national and global economic crises, management of the federal economic bailout, wars, health care and education.

The nation needs immigration reform if it wants agriculture to survive, O’Brien said. “But we have to recognize it’s a very fractious issue that will take more time and energy to reach a consensus than some other things. It probably means immigration reform will come later rather than sooner.”

He said later could be several years.

“We have a long-term challenge — two to five years — to get ag’s interest and legitimate needs for a guest worker program recognized,” O’Brien said.

Washington, Oregon and California farm bureaus all backed Republican John McCain for president. The American Farm Bureau Federation does not endorse presidential candidates.

“Agriculture has not made the case nationally that we’re talking about filling jobs Americans don’t want to take,” he said.

The average migrant farmworker job pays $10 to $11 an hour, but it’s hard work and Americans would rather work in easier jobs, even if they pay less, he said.

People think of fruits and vegetables when they think of migrant workers, but migrant workers are the backbone of the dairy, hog and grain industries, he said.

“About 65 percent of the grain in the Midwest is harvested by custom cutters, and the workers are migrants,” O’Brien said.

American agriculture is more dependent on hired workers, versus family farmers, than at any time since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping records, he said.

While America is cracking down on illegal immigrants who make up a larger percentage of the migrant work force, America needs to decide if it wants to maintain its agricultural industry, O’Brien said. If America has no agricultural workers, its agriculture will be displaced by agriculture in Central and South America, he said.

The Washington Farm Bureau’s proposal for an Essential Worker Pilot Program would be a good experiment in short-term relief, O’Brien said.

The program, he said, is a takeoff on the federal H-2A guest worker program whereby foreign workers are given temporary visas to come to the U.S. to work. The pilot program would be faster, easier and less expensive than the H-2A program, O’Brien said.

Dan Fazio, the Washington Farm Bureau’s director of employer services, said the pilot program, first announced by the bureau at a National Onion Association convention in Pasco on July 24, has been positively received by many people but not labor unions.

He said a bill to implement the program and include other industries is being written for next year’s legislative session.

Unions are a good example of where the bureau hasn’t made its case, O’Brien said. “Unions want to get as many Americans hired in good jobs as possible,” he said, “but they have to recognize in the ag sector there isn’t an American work force to protect.”

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