FOUR CENTRAL CALIFORNIA FARMERS ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

[This Op-Ed piece appeared August 15, 2013 in the Fresno BEE newspaper.  It gives a superb perspective from California farmers on needed immigration reform.]

We are farmers in in the Central Valley. There is nothing we want more than to bring to your families fresh, nutritious food.In order to do that, we need a legal and reliable workforce.

Our country's immigration system is broken and needs reform. Most Americans, but especially most farmers and ranchers, heartily agree with this statement.

Inaction in Washington has brought us to this point, and it will take action from our elected leaders to build a solution. This is especially important as the House of Representatives begins the process of considering immigration legislation over the coming months.

For many in agriculture the biggest challenge we face today is finding the farmworkers we need to run our farms and ranches. After all, it does not matter what Mother Nature throws at you if you do not have the help to pick crops or care for animals through good years and bad. This is a challenge that is faced by farmers all over the country, and most especially here in California — America's No. 1 agriculture-producing state.

It is an issue that impacts communities beyond the farm gate however, since each of the 1.4 million or so farmworkers in the U.S. supports two or three jobs in other industry sectors.

Between 60% and 70% of this work force is unauthorized to work in the U.S., although these workers typically show us documents that appear genuine. We need these workers because not enough documented workers apply for these jobs and machines have not been invented that can pick a peach, a melon or stalk of celery with the necessary care required.

We need a skilled, stable work force we can depend on — one that is here in the U.S. legally. If we cannot find enough workers, farmers will be forced to reduce domestic production or go out of business due to labor shortages and high costs.

The fruits and vegetables requiring hand labor will have to be imported, thus raising prices for consumers, greatly increasing transportation miles and making it difficult to preserve the freshness of this perishable, fresh food.

Farmers often pay significantly more than minimum wage, yet we still have extreme difficulty finding workers. In many cases, it is not the money that makes these jobs unappealing to many Americans. Rather, the seasonal and often migratory nature of the work and the fact that it must be done outside in all kinds of weather are the primary reasons it is extremely difficult to find U.S. workers to do these jobs at any wage.

To respond to this need, a group of about 70 organizations representing agricultural employers across the country came together, forming the Agricultural Workforce Coalition (AWC), to speak with one voice and to find a path forward on immigration reform.

The AWC also came together with the United Farm Workers (UFW) union this past spring to unite both employer and employee behind a proposal to help ensure America's farmers have access to a stable and secure work force.

That proposal also addresses border security and by no means offers amnesty to those already living and working in the country. Rather, existing workers would be put on "probation," requiring them to register with the federal government, undergo a criminal background check, and if no criminal convictions are found, they would pay a fine and receive provisional legal status or a blue card.

They would not qualify for federal health benefits for 10 years nor get Social Security credits for any work performed under a Social Security number that doesn't belong to them.

We hope that the general principles of this agreement would be carried through in any legislation dealing with agricultural workers in the House of Representatives.

Any program should deal with current experienced agricultural workers as well as provide for agriculture's future work force needs with a practical guest-worker visa program. We employ many good workers who have been in the U.S. for years, pay their taxes, and have homes, families and no criminal history. They may be forced out of a productive life if our congressional representatives cannot come together on immigration reform.

We urge the House of Representatives to act on this pressing need and get to conference with the U.S. Senate on immigration legislation that will provide American farmers, consumers and workers with an effective immigration system.

 

[Fred LoBue Jr., of Lindsay; Carol Chandler, of Selma; John Harris, of Coalinga; Harold McClarty, of Kingsburg; and Steve Patricio, of Firebaugh are members of the Western Growers' Board of Directors. Copyright 2013.]

 

CRUCIAL TIME TO CONTACT HOUSE MEMBERS!!

With the House of Representatives on a five-week recess, this is a crucial time for everyone supporting comprehensive immigration reform to contact the local office for your House Member.

The only ones to whom House Members pay attention are constituents who live in their District and who have the potential to vote them out of office.  That's why your voice and viewpoint at this time are so crucial for the sake of our immigrant brothers and sisters.

 A simple and brief email to your House Member is the best.  Or, a phone call to the District office in which you urge the Member to support a comprehensive immigration reform.  Best of all:  try to get a meeting with your Member and bring a small group of immigration reform supporters.

The best approach with House Members is to be positive about our being a nation of immigrants, and how immigrants have strengthened our nation--and continue to do so.  Point out that immigrants keep coming to our country for one reason:  there are jobs here that others will not take.  Many of these jobs are low-skilled and low-wages.  Immigrants are filling those jobs simply because others in the country won't.

Appeal to the Member to be a leader in dealing with some 11 million people living in the shadows of our society, people whose dignity and rights are being denied.  Explain that a comprehensive approach, such as in the Senate, is the best approach to deal with all of the issues that have been neglected over several decades.

Discourage a piecemeal approach to this pressing national issue.  The Senate version is already very onerous for our immigrants, and to stretch out the process even longer helps no one.

Continue to pray for our immigrants and immigration reform.  Try to get Intercessions included in the parish Prayer of the Faithful on Sundays for our immigrants and just reform.

Those opposed to immigration reform are working hard to defeat any meaningful reform.  We must be even more diligent and proactive in our efforts on behalf of these brothers and sisters.

With God's grace, we can make a significant difference on behalf of the least brothers and sisters!

CRUCIAL FINAL WEEK IN THE HOUSE FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

These final days of July in the House of Representatives are crucial for meaningful progress on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters, and for progress on comprehensive immigration reform.  However, mixed signals continue to emanate from the House.

Most approaches to solving the immigration mess tend towards being punitive and greatly limited in their scope and timetables.  Very different from the Senate which passed a comprehensive package with bipartisan support.

If the House fails to pass any meaningful immigration reform before adjourning for the five-week August recess, the likelihood that a decent bill can be passed after Labor Day is slim.  In September, all of the House focus will be on the mid-term elections of 2014.  And both major parties are only concerned about taking seats away from the other party, not the overall good of the nation and the many critical issues which face us all.

The August recess offers all of us a unique opportunity to meet with our own House representative, and to urge him/her to consider and vote for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform--not a piecemeal effort which would take decades to embrace the 11 million unauthorized people living in our midst.

These local area meetings are critical because the only people House members listen to are constituents with the voting power to retain them in office, or to replace them.  It is crucial that these meetings be organized with actual constituents, not others of good will but who live in another House district.

Parishes can play a crucial role in enhancing these district level meetings by getting parishioners who live in the district to sign a letter which can be brought to the local area office of the House member.  No other step has as great an impact and influence on the House member than knowing how large numbers of his/her constituents feel on a given issue.

Much prayer and work remains, but the summer recess could be the most crucial time we have in trying to get the House to pass a measure close to the one which passed the Senate.

St. Toribio Romo, patron of migrants, pray for us!

POPE FRANCIS' POWERFUL HOMILY ON IMMIGRANTS

Pope Francis Homily at Papal Mass on Lampedusa, the Island of Refugees from Africa  [July 8, 2013]

Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death. That is how the headlines put it. When I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago, and realized that it happens all too frequently, it has constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart. So I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!

First, however, I want to say a word of heartfelt gratitude and encouragement to you, the people of Lampedusa and Linosa, and to the various associations, volunteers and security personnel who continue to attend to the needs of people journeying towards a better future. You are so few, and yet you offer an example of solidarity! Thank you! I also thank Archbishop Francesco Montenegro for all his help, his efforts and his close pastoral care. I offer a cordial greeting to Mayor Giusi Nicolini: thank you so much for what you have done and are doing. I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit. The Church is at your side as you seek a more dignified life for yourselves and your families. To all of you: o’scià!

 
    This morning, in the light of God’s word which has just been proclaimed, I wish to offer some thoughts meant to challenge people’s consciences and lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart.

"Adam, where are you?" This is the first question which God asks man after his sin. "Adam, where are you?" Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation, because he thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. Harmony was lost; man erred and this error occurs over and over again also in relationships with others. "The other" is no longer a brother or sister to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life and my comfort. God asks a second question: "Cain, where is your brother?" The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a chain of death, even to the spilling of a brother’s blood!

God’s two questions echo even today, as forcefully as ever! How many of us, myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live; we don’t care; we don’t protect what God created for everyone, and we end up unable even to care for one another! And when humanity as a whole loses its bearings, it results in tragedies like the one we have witnessed.

"Where is your brother?" His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This is not a question directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death. How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God! Once again I thank you, the people of Lampedusa, for your solidarity. I recently listened to one of these brothers of ours. Before arriving here, he and the others were at the mercy of traffickers, people who exploit the poverty of others, people who live off the misery of others. How much these people have suffered! Some of them never made it here.

"Where is your brother?" Who is responsible for this blood? In Spanish literature we have a comedy of Lope de Vega which tells how the people of the town of Fuente Ovejuna kill their governor because he is a tyrant. They do it in such a way that no one knows who the actual killer is. So when the royal judge asks: "Who killed the governor?", they all reply: "Fuente Ovejuna, sir". Everybody and nobody! Today too, the question has to be asked: Who is responsible for the blood of these brothers and sisters of ours? Nobody! That is our answer: It isn’t me; I don’t have anything to do with it; it must be someone else, but certainly not me. Yet God is asking each of us: "Where is the blood of your brother which cries out to me?" Today no one in our world feels responsible; we have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters.

We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the priest and the levite whom Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half dead on the side of the road, and perhaps we say to ourselves: "poor soul…!", and then go on our way. It’s not our responsibility, and with that we feel reassured, assuaged. The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference. In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!

Here we can think of Manzoni’s character – "the Unnamed". The globalization of indifference makes us all "unnamed", responsible, yet nameless and faceless.

"Adam, where are you?" "Where is your brother?" These are the two questions which God asks

us at the dawn of human history, and which he also asks each man and woman in our own day, which he also asks us. But I would like us to ask a third question: "Has any one of us wept because of this situation and others like it?" Has any one of us grieved for the death of these brothers and sisters? Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their families?

We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience compassion – "suffering with" others: the globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep! In the Gospel we have heard the crying, the wailing, the great lamentation: "Rachel weeps for her children… because they are no more". Herod sowed death to protect his own comfort, his own soap bubble. And so it continues… Let us ask the Lord to remove the part of Herod that lurks in our hearts; let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our world, of our own hearts, and of all those who in anonymity make social and economic decisions which open the door to tragic situations like this. "Has any one wept?" Today has anyone wept in our world?

Lord, in this liturgy, a penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our indifference to so many of our brothers and sisters. Father, we ask your pardon for those who are complacent and closed amid comforts which have deadened their hearts; we beg your forgiveness for those who by their decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!

Today too, Lord, we hear you asking: "Adam, where are you?" "Where is the blood of your brother?"

 

68 TO 32: HISTORIC U.S. SENATE VOTE ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

On June 27 the U.S. Senate passed the most comprehensive immigration reform bill in decades.  The 68 to 32 vote shows strong bipartisan support.

I commend the Senators for turning back many amendments which would have created serious problems for many of the 11 million unauthorized persons living among us, but in the shadows of dignity, respect, and legal rights.

The U.S. Bishops Conference had been working with many in the Senate to improve the bill, especially in lessening serious hindrances for those attempting to apply and to qualify.  What is needed is a final bill which balances all of the needs and concerns for our country, as well as for these persons who work in a vast array of service jobs, in agriculture, in construction, in home care, in hotels and motels, and in all tourism industries.

Our next major challenge is to try to get the House of Representatives to adopt a bill which is similar to the one from the Senate.  But there has been so much rhetoric on the part of many in the House which is ominous, and which portrays a punitive approach to these 11 million brothers and sisters.

Now is the time for each of us to contact his/her House member urging a humane and just approach, and urging them to see the Senate bill as a good model and the basis for an eventual Conference Committee.

May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph open the minds and hearts of the House members to bring about a just and lasting solution!

“Tragic Day for Marriage and our Nation,” State U.S. Bishops

 

June 26, 2013

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court decisions June 26 striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and refusing to rule on the merits of a challenge to California’s Proposition 8 mark a “tragic day for marriage and our nation,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

The statement follows.

“Today is a tragic day for marriage and our nation. The Supreme Court has dealt a profound injustice to the American people by striking down in part the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The Court got it wrong. The federal government ought to respect the truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, even where states fail to do so. The preservation of liberty and justice requires that all laws, federal and state, respect the truth, including the truth about marriage.

 

It is also unfortunate that the Court did not take the opportunity to uphold California’s Proposition 8 but instead decided not to rule on the matter. The common good of all, especially our children, depends upon a society that strives to uphold the truth of marriage. Now is the time to redouble our efforts in witness to this truth. These decisions are part of a public debate of great consequence. The future of marriage and the well-being of our society hang in the balance.

“Marriage is the only institution that brings together a man and a woman for life, providing any child who comes from their union with the secure foundation of a mother and a father.

“Our culture has taken for granted for far too long what human nature, experience, common sense, and God’s wise design all confirm: the difference between a man and a woman matters, and the difference between a mom and a dad matters. While the culture has failed in many ways to be marriage-strengthening, this is no reason to give up. Now is the time to strengthen marriage, not redefine it.

“When Jesus taught about the meaning of marriage – the lifelong, exclusive union of husband and wife – he pointed back to “the beginning” of God’s creation of the human person as male and female (see Matthew 19). In the face of the customs and laws of his time, Jesus taught an unpopular truth that everyone could understand. The truth of marriage endures, and we will continue to boldly proclaim it with confidence and charity.

“Now that the Supreme Court has issued its decisions, with renewed purpose we call upon all of our leaders and the people of this good nation to stand steadfastly together in promoting and defending the unique meaning of marriage: one man, one woman, for life. We also ask for prayers as the Court’s decisions are reviewed and their implications further clarified.”

 

BORDER SECURITY & IMMIGRATION REFORM

The major focus now in the US Senate debate on a comprehensive immigration bill is on border security.

There are two views on how the country's borders are key to passage of a comprehensive new law:

     1.   Secure the Borders as Part of the Comprehensive Plan

This point of view sees the entire comprehensive plan as a single package, and each of its elements is related to the other.  All elements get set in motion once a law is signed by the President.  But no element is contingent upon completing any other element when the law goes into effect.

This is the view supported by the Catholic Church in our country because there are already sufficient time delays in the proposed plan to make sure that by the time an unauthorized person is eligible for a green card, at least 10 years or more will have past. 

With the recent border security amendments now in the bill, making the southern border totally secure will happen.  The doubling of Border Patrol agents begins at once, and the other border elements will follow quickly.  With the addition of more Border Patrol agents, one could actually station one agents every 250 feet from one end of the southern border to the other.

Keep in mind that the number of unauthorized persons attempting to enter the U.S. looking for work has dropped to a mere trickle.  In fact, the "bad guys" far outnumber people looking for work.  Drug dealers, money launderers, and human traffickers make up the majority of persons now apprehended.

     2.  Secure the Borders Totally Before Other Parts of the Plan Take Effect

This point of view focuses upon target percentages or trigger numbers of apprehensions before any of the other elements can take effect. 

But how can one know that 90% of all unauthorized persons are actually apprehended?  Since most unauthorized persons cross through five of the eleven Border Patrol Sectors, it will be easy to focus most of the new agents in those key Sectors.

It is feared that the proponents of this second approach are really not in favor of a comprehensive immigration reform plan, and see the use of triggers as a way to halt the implementation completely.  All of the anti-immigrant groups in the country tend to favor this second approach.


I urge each one of you to contact your U.S. Senator and urge him/her to support the bill in the Senate which retains border security as one of the interlocked elements of a comprehensive approach to reform.