Reducing ILLEGAL MIGRATION through a Legal Work Program

Abstract

Immigration reform has been a thorny issue for presidential administrations and the U.S. Congress for many years. The current reality is that many jobs in agriculture and the service industry in the U.S. would go unfilled without immigrant labor, regardless of the levels of unemployment. There are many jobs American workers simply don’t want. Another reality, recognized by President George W. Bush and confirmed by business, labor, and church leaders, is that an estimated 8 to 10 million workers in the U.S. are not properly documented. Given my experience as president of the Nisei Farmers League, an agricultural organization founded by Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants who realized the American dream by working as farmworkers and eventually owning their own farms and whose purpose is to maintain a stable and legal farm workforce, the reality is that there are no workable programs through which employers can obtain temporary and seasonal legal foreign workers. The result is illegal economic migration into the United States. President Bush has courageously chosen to take on this controversial problem and has outlined general principles for much needed reform. Congress is now challenged to put together reform proposals that address this problem. This is a tough assignment in a presidential election year. For those of us who produce and deliver the nation’s food and provide its essential services, the status quo is irretrievably broken and reform is essential. It is easy to criticize illegal migration, decry the loss of U.S. jobs, and spew rhetoric that is culturally divisive. It is far more difficult to come up with practical solutions that curtail illegal migration, allow American workers access to jobs they want, and provide a workable mechanism that will match willing foreign workers with employers who have unfilled jobs.