Speech #530131742

With the provisions of this law. with the sanctions. with the legalization program. the nature and the composition of the United States of America undoubtedly will change. With respect to how the labor demands of the agricultural community in this county will be met. very serious questions have been raised and will continue to be raised. I think it is very clear in most peoples minds. in the minds of the Members of this House and in our constituents minds. that the continued flow of illegal aliens is now unacceptable and this legislation is about struggling with an effort to stem that tide. It is also very clear that a good portion of the illegal aliens who come for employment opportunities from Mexico. from the Caribbean. and from other countries. come and end up working in the American agricultural industry. I think we must understand that once we make the employment of those individuals illegal. we change the nature of the agricultural work force. So the task that is before us is to structure a program that meets both the needs of our guests. the guest worker. of the foreign workers. of American workers. and of the farmers. so that we do not diminish the capacity of the American agricultural industry to produce. as it has in the past. nor do we render an injustice to those who we have invited to the shores of this country to work. as many have said in the past days. to do tasks that no American wants to do. that no American wants to work in the heat of today to pick the crops. that no American wants to work in the cold to prune the crops. that no American wants to be on call to meet the demand of 72 hours. no American wants to travel the breadth of this Nation in their automobile to look for a job in one crop after another. So we have remedied that in two ways. We have remedied that by the use of illegal aliens. who say. "Compared to what my situation is in my home country. I will do those things that Americans will not." We have remedied that by providing the H2 program that we refer to as the guest worker program. A good part of the American agricultural industry has chosen not to involve themselves with the H2 program. and my colleagues have suggested that. therefore. it does not work. Well. there have been few. if any. applications from the Southwest United States for this purpose. and yet we have also seen that it works fairly well in Florida. not as well as it might. and I agree that there should be changes in it. But what is central to this effort is whether or not the drive for immigration reform will be a drive that culminates in bringing back one of the worst periods of history in this country. and that was when this country used foreign workers at a time when we had what we called the bracero program. We brought people to this country. We asked them to engage in tasks that. again. people said that American workers would not do.