Shelving Immigration Bill Hurts Farmers

American agriculture was very disappointed when the Senate failed to move forward last week on immigration. We’re going to push as hard as we can to get the bill back on track. The fact is, the existing law is broken and the sooner we fix it, the better off everyone will be.

Today, farmers aren’t able to find Americans willing to take farm jobs even at pay averaging $10/hour (Sen. McCain offered $50/hour to anyone who finished out the lettuce harvest in Yuma AZ). Farmers cannot divine which documents are legitimate and they aren’t allowed to question documents without the risk of being slapped with a lawsuit.  Our economists estimate that up to $9 billion annually in domestic agricultural production is at risk of being lost if we don’t solve this problem.  That’s $9 billion of wealth we create here in U.S. that we will go to farmers in other countries.

We already have a problem with our dependence on foreign sources of oil.  Do we really want to create the same problem with America’s food supplies and the broader food security of the nation?  The Senate needs to return to immigration reform NOW!