The largest U.S. farm group is throwing its weight behind a new immigration law reform that would allow undocumented workers already in the country to gain legal status.
Delegates at the annual meeting of the six-million-member American Farm Bureau Federation issued the call after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked them to speak up for comprehensive immigration reform.
Agriculture has a direct stake in the issue, given its need for a steady and reliable supply of labour to stop certain crops from rotting in the field.
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“The reality is we’re only going to solve this through comprehensive immigration reform,” said Bob Stallman, the group’s president.
Immigration reform became a front-burner issue after overwhelming support from Hispanic voters figured in President Barack Obama’s re-election.
The U.S. agricultural industry employs 1.5 million workers annually in temporary or full-time jobs. Many of them, perhaps 500,000 to 900,000 in all, are believed to be undocumented.
Despite the high unemployment rate, farmers and ranchers say it is a perennial struggle to find enough workers to perform the back-breaking labour of fruit and vegetable harvesting, or the daily care of livestock.
