Immigration-reform bill may be delayed by dispute over farmworkers wages

Ianus · 04-06-2013, 06:34 PM

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politi...nclick_check=1

Quote:

Bipartisan immigration-reform talks in the Senate have hit another late snag, this time a dispute over agricultural workers’ wages, complicating the efforts of a bipartisan group of senators to meet its informal deadline to introduce legislation next week.

The staffs of the group of four Republican senators — including Arizona’s Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake — and four Democratic senators have been drafting the bill over the past two weeks while Congress was on its Easter break, with the goal of unveiling the eagerly anticipated immigration-system overhaul when the lawmakers return to Capitol Hill.

The senators, known as the Gang of Eight, also have continued to hammer out key sticking points in ongoing telephone negotiations.

Translating the wide-ranging negotiations, which began shortly after last year’s election, into written form would be a Herculean task under any circumstances, but the pressure is on because of worries there won’t be enough time to debate and pass such landmark legislation before the House and Senate are paralyzed by midterm-election politics.

Federal legislation can frequently run hundreds of pages, and the immigration-reform bill is expected to include complicated components such as a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, a new foreign-worker program and new border-security and workplace-verification measures.

At some point, possibly as soon as this fall, the tensions and passions of the election season will make action on major issues difficult, if not impossible.

Last weekend, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the organized-labor giant AFL-CIO reached what could be a landmark agreement on the creation of proposed new “W” visa that would regulate the future flow of non-seasonal foreign workers into the country. However, parallel negotiations between agricultural-business interests and the United Farm Workers of America have yet to yield an accord.

Mostly, though, the writing of the bill may be taking more time than originally expected.

President Barack Obama is supporting the bipartisan group and has given members the political room to finish the bill, which initially would come before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Flake is a member of the committee.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday during a meeting with Arizona Republic editors and reporters: “I think we’re anxious to see a bill because we’re anxious to begin the process of (committee) markup and so forth.

“However, we’re supportive of a bipartisan effort here, and at least the information is that they are making good progress. Once people actually get into the immigration system, and if they look at the whole system, it’s not a two-page bill. I think you can have agreement on all the basic principles and stuff, but the translating into legislative language takes time.”

In 2007, the last time Congress seriously considered immigration reform, the legislation before the Senate took up 790 pages.

Asked about the possibility that the bill’s unveiling might be postponed until the week of April 15 at the soonest, Flake acknowledged that it could happen.

“We’re still trying to get it done, but it may be,” Flake told The Republic. “The sooner the better, but pushing it a week off doesn’t change the dynamic that much.”

Flake said the impasse on the agricultural workers is one of the items that are still outstanding.

“The ‘ag’ part of it is not unlike the regular ‘W’ visa part,” Flake said. “You’re dealing with wage rates and caps, and that’s tough to settle. I’m confident it will get done.”

Although senators working on the bill have not officially signaled that they will need more time, immigration-reform advocates on Friday expressed resignation that the bill, originally expected in March, likely would be delayed again by at least a week.

However, they cited the long hours and immense effort that the senators and their aides have put into formulating the bill and emphasized that the parties involved are trying to get the legislation right and that the general timeline is still on track.

“We’re a long way from panicking,” Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-reform America’s Voice, said Friday in a conference call with the media. “Ideally, we go through the Senate in time for the House to bring it up in July, but realistically, we believe we have the entire calendar year of 2013 as our window of opportunity.”

Sharry also said that, unlike the foreign-worker program developed by the U.S. Chamber and the AFL-CIO, the immigration bill could proceed without a joint agricultural deal in place. It could be added to the legislation later via amendment, he said.

According to the National Center for Farmworker Health Inc., there are more than 3 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the country. Of those farmworkers, the center’s website says, 72 percent are foreign-born; 68 percent were born in Mexico; and 48 percent work without legal status. The statistics come from 2007 to 2009 polling of agricultural workers.

The months-long negotiations have made progress, but the two sides have not come to terms on wages and caps for a new visa just for agricultural workers, said Kristi Boswell, director of congressional relations for labor and immigration at the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is part of a farm-industry coalition involved in the discussions.

“For agriculture, those are the two elements that make or break a program,” Boswell said, declining to disclose details of the talks. “And if we don’t get them right, we risk being in the same situation we’re in today. So, we have to make sure that the program is affordable and that the cap is set at a reasonable number based on our needs.”

For a comprehensive immigration-reform bill to be successful, both sides of the aisle agree, agriculture needs a solution, she said.

Giev Kashkooli, the United Farm Workers’ political and legislative director and third vice president, said his organization would prefer an agreement but not at the expense of shrinking the pay of agricultural laborers.

“Farmworkers are the poorest workers in the United States. They do extraordinary work every day to feed us, and we believe it would be a grievous mistake to allow agribusiness to use the debate over immigration reform to further reduce those wages,” Kashkooli said.

One political expert who follows Congress closely agreed that an extra week or two won’t make much difference to the immigration legislation’s chances for passage, although he agreed that the window for action will eventually close and that any longer-term delays would give the bill’s opponents more time to organize.

The finished bill easily could run hundreds of pages, said John J. “Jack” Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. “It’s not going to be beach reading, that’s for sure,” he said.

VeryNicePerson1 · 04-06-2013, 06:35 PM

Here we go again...

...lol...

Task_1539 · 04-06-2013, 06:38 PM

Might be postponed till the week of April 15. I think the house might just release their bill first.

VeryNicePerson1 · 04-06-2013, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Task_1539

Might be postponed till the week of April 15. I think the house might just release their bill first.

Possibly.

Would be funny though, so much hype building up over the Senate bill, but House releases theirs first...lol...

Task_1539 · 04-06-2013, 06:43 PM

Dark horse of the race, lol.

Pianoswithoutfaith · 04-06-2013, 06:59 PM

Of 2014

EditorInChief · 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ianus

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politi...nclick_check=1

Adding SO MUCH stuff to one single bill in such a short period of time is truly IRresponsible!!!

Legalization plus border security is already *comprehensive* enough!

The guest worker program should wait until later! And let's begin to discuss and pass legalization and border security FIRST.

pavpatel · 04-06-2013, 09:50 PM

I don't like the house version much. It doesn't allow parents to travel home in the 10 year wait for the GC. Not cool. The senate bill will I believe.

Severity · 04-07-2013, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pavpatel

I don't like the house version much. It doesn't allow parents to travel home in the 10 year wait for the GC. Not cool. The senate bill will I believe.

While I would love to have my parents visit their home, let's be realistic. They knew they wouldn't be able to go back once they came here, 10 year wait seems reasonable.

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Immigration-reform bill may be delayed by dispute over farmworkers wages