Another disastrous amnesty via AgJOBS Amendment

Breaking News Update: NumbersUSA - AgJOBS AMNESTY AMENDMENT WILL NOT BE OFFERED TO FARM BILL Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has agreed not to offer her revised AgJOBS amendment to the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 as she had originally intended. As a reminder, this is the AgJOBS amnesty to reward an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens with amnesty (plus their spouses and children which could push the total to three million or more). She is quoted on today's Congress Daily as saying: "A broad bipartisan coalition of members believe AgJobs is a necessary solution to the crisis being faced by the agricultural industry," Feinstein said. "But in this session, unfortunately, you need more than broad support -- you need the right time and opportunity to line up as well." "So when we took a clear-eyed assessment of the politics of the farm bill and the defeat of the DREAM Act (which would have allowed college-bound illegal immigrants to earn green cards) and comprehensive immigration reform, it became clear that our support could not sustain these competing forces, . . ." Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods. Capitol sources say that Sen. Feinstein may have worked a deal in which she will be able to bring up the AgJOBS amnesty as a stand-alone bill in exchange for not offering the amendment to the Farm Bill. We will keep you updated to any potential threat. ------------------------------------------------------NumbersUSA Alert: Another disastrous amnesty! Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) may offer her revised AgJOBS amendment to the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 as early as this Week. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is apparently trying to convince his GOP Senate colleagues that the AgJOBS amnesty has been changed enough to make it palatable to Republican Senators. By and large, however, this is the same AgJOBS amnesty proposed last year, which, if enacted, would reward an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens with amnesty (plus their spouses and children which could push the total to three million or more). This measure also would provide amnesty for employers who broke the law by hiring illegal aliens.

WHY AG JOBS IS UNNECESSARY:
POINT #1: We don't have an epidemic of crops "rotting on the vine." A few anecdotes are often allowed by the media to create a totally false picture of the overall situation. We've heard these scare tactics from the pro-amnesty forces for years. Somehow, we never seem to run out of food.
POINT #2: The federal government offers the H-2A visa which ALREADY allows farmers to import unlimited numbers of foreign ag workers for specific short-term work. If some growers lack workers, it is only because they failed to be creative enough to attract a domestic workforce or failed to use the legal foreign guestworker program that is available to them.
POINT #3: Growers who refuse to use the H-2A program mainly do so because they have to pay an almost decent wage under the program, while illegal aliens are cheaper.
POINT #4: If growers find the H-2A program too cumbersome, they should direct their lobbyists to support H-2A reforms instead of amnesty.
MAIN POINT: Americans will do this work - at a decent wage. The Department of Labor finds that the majority of farm workers (about 55%) in the U.S. are native-born Americans!
Contact your senators! or Fax your Senators via free faxes at NumbersUSA.

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