Speech #990259971

It is that the greed of the growers in the perishable fruit and crop industry. particularly in the west coast area is insatiable. I do say that clearly and that is not said in harshness or vituperation. It is the total reality of immigration reform. There is no way that they can be satisfied. Their entire function in life is that when the figs are ready. the figs should be harvested and if they need 4.000 human beings to do that. they do not want to mess around with the Department of Labor or the ordinary procedures of the H2 Worker Program. which is used very well in many States. including the State of the Democratic leader. The H2 Program is not used because the other is so abused. So. the greed of the growers brings it down one more time and yet the irony of it is that only 8 to 15 percent of the illegal undocumented persons work in agriculture. So as we fiddle around with the issuewatching this tremendous tail which is larger than a mastodons tusk controlling the whole body of immigration reform. which is about the size of a pack rat. then you know something is out of whack in America and these growers make it out of whack. So. I hope the people of America will now really turn their attention to that particular group and maybe ask them if they are so dependent upon illegal. undocumented. exploited people that they will go broke. and if that is the case. then let us find that out on the floor of the legislature instead of dabbling in the revelry of what we do here. That is the issue and that is the issue that should be addressed. I would just say. too. that the President has always been right there with us on immigration reform. He has always been willing to meet with Congressman RODINO and the rest of us on the issue. It would be most unfortunate and unfair to say that he was somehow at the root of the failure of the legislation. The failure of the legislation came in the agriculture area with an amendment that was very thoughtfully presented which would have essentially allowed a person to receive a green card. the "creme de la creme" of entry into the United States. if they worked in agriculture for only 60 mandays a year. That is what brought it down. There is not a question in my mind that we could not have resolved our differences on that in conference. but so it is.