August 11, 2007

Dianne Feinstein: either pass "reform", or allow illegal immigration (acropalypse!)

Senator Dianne Feinstein uses the news that the Bush administration says it's finally going to enforce our immigration laws to promote the AgJobs amnesty. Reading between the lines, she's saying that if that doesn't pass, she's willing to support illegal immigration. Is she little more than an enabler of crooked growers? I'll let you decide:

The Administration's approach is a Band-Aid that will not stop the looming crisis American agriculture will face this fall. The crisis is that crops will not be harvested.

Our nation's $260 billion agriculture industry depends largely on undocumented workers. Today, it is estimated that at least 70 percent of the workers who plant, prune, and harvest American fruits and vegetables are undocumented. Without them, American farmers will not be able to fully harvest their crops.

We have found over the years that there simply are not enough Americans willing to do this work. Today's farm workers are highly skilled – they know how to harvest, how to pack, how to can. To take this workforce away would collapse the industry.

[lists supposed instances of growers losing crops due to a lack of workers, although those may be due to other factors... warns of growers moving to Mexico, which might actually be better for both countries... raises specter of tainted food imports...]

...Secondly, if China is able to get a foothold on the American apple market and we see the importation of cheap apples, the American apple market will be decimated...

...In a couple of weeks, there is going to be catastrophe... [...the acropalypse is nigh!...]

I don't know whether Chinese crops are picked using slave labor, but one wonders how far Feinstein would be willing to go to support the U.S. apple "industry".

Posted to Immigration2007b at August 11, 2007 01:25 PM