House tries a reach around on stalled DREAM Act Bill with New AgJOBS Bill (visas, illegals)

[theunbrainwashed]

Congress.org - News : Congress considers AgJOBS bill (http://www.congress.org/news/2010/09/24/congress_considers_agjobs_bill - broken link)

"The bill (H.R. 2414) would allow 2 million farm workers to come to the U.S. as guest workers and eventually become legal residents. Those who back it say it would improve working conditions and opportunities for farm workers."

DREAM + AgJobs - DREAM Act Portal Forum

"Ag and labor interests plan to renew their push for an overhaul of immigration laws this year, despite low expectations from congressional observers.

The plan, pushed by California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, involves approaching individual lawmakers the week after Labor Day pushing two pieces of legislation, AgJOBS and the DREAM Act, together as a package.

AgJOBS -- the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunities and Security Act, introduced in both houses last year -- is a compromise by farm and labor interests first introduced in 2003. It contains a process for granting legal residency while tweaking the existing guestworker program for ag."

Time to flood the switchboards again, and say NO to the AgJOBS Bill! NO TO AMNESTY! I don't care how they decide to dress it up! The AgJOBS Bill is just another amnesty bill

[Opyelie]

There is ALREADY visas in place for TEMPORARY guest migrants (H2 visas) for ag workers.......why do we need to make them legal residents? As it IS the farmers prefer to use illegals rather than apply for legal temporary workers.

[theunbrainwashed]

Originally Posted by Opyelie

There is ALREADY visas in place for TEMPORARY guest migrants (H2 visas) for ag workers.......why do we need to make them legal residents? As it IS the farmers prefer to use illegals rather than apply for legal temporary workers.

That's the thing. The illegals are cheap and exploitable. If you legalize the illegals, then they can't be cheap anymore and exploited. So the solution would be to import even more illegals, and the cycle never ends.

[chicagonut]

Originally Posted by Opyelie

There is ALREADY visas in place for TEMPORARY guest migrants (H2 visas) for ag workers.......why do we need to make them legal residents? As it IS the farmers prefer to use illegals rather than apply for legal temporary workers.

You are correct. I don't get it either. Since the farmers are already bypassing these H-2A visas they will bypass this also to get their cheap illegal labor instead. These workers should be strictly temporary and seasonal anyway. There is no need to make them permanent with a path to citizenship.

[Opyelie]

Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed

That's the thing. The illegals are cheap and exploitable. If you legalize the illegals, then they can't be cheap anymore and exploited. So the solution would be to import even more illegals, and the cycle never ends.

Yep, recall that article regarding illegal farm workers that were rounded up and the employer was "forced" to go through the procedure to hire legal H2 workers and one displaced worker who has now gained legal status was crying "what about us" lol

[SoEdible]

Do we really need 2 million farm workers? Where are they getting that number from? That's a lot of freaking people for agricultural work. And I think that "Take Our Jobs" campaign is unfair. The undocumented and documented migrant workers are already living in the areas were farming is needed, most legal residents whom this campaign is challenging have already left these areas long ago. So, what are Americans supposed to do who want to prove that they will work those jobs, abandon their better-paying job and move clear across the country to take on a farm job? If they were living in those areas and needed a job, I'm sure they would take the farming job. The farm business accomodates undocumented/documented migrant workers, it doesn't do much for native US citizens and legal immigrants.

[Opyelie]

Originally Posted by SoEdible

Do we really need 2 million farm workers? Where are they getting that number from? That's a lot of freaking people for agricultural work. And I think that "Take Our Jobs" campaign is unfair. The undocumented and documented migrant workers are already living in the areas were farming is needed, most legal residents whom this campaign is challenging have already left these areas long ago. So, what are Americans supposed to do who want to prove that they will work those jobs, abandon their better-paying job and move clear across the country to take on a farm job? If they were living in those areas and needed a job, I'm sure they would take the farming job.

No we don't, which is why they're pushing the DREAM Act so hard to allow nearly 2 million to be legalised and possibly be college educated to take over those "other jobs Americans won't do"

[texdav]

Basically its a dead issue and likely more so after the congressional elections.it was only put on teh congressianl calander ebcause they needed to witht eh mid term elstions . They knew they didn;t ahve the vote especailly when combinig three issues on veterans;collage non-citizens and gays. They hope to get some votywes by adding the war funding which tells you how weak the democrats thought the others were.It also clearly shpows they have no serious intension on their afgran polisies but to cut ans run eventaully or tehy would not have risked delaying funds.