Orange County Register

July 13, 2001
By DENA BUNIS and MINERVA CANTO
The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON -- Immigration advocates Thursday blasted the agriculture industry for breaking apart a fragile coalition of business and farm workers with a new guest-worker proposal, a development that complicates the chances of any sweeping amnesty moving through Congress this year.

At issue is a bill introduced Wednesday in the Senate that advocates say breaks a guest- worker-program deal that came within a hair's breadth of becoming law at the end of last year. The new bill - sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, at the urging of agricultural interests - puts up roadblocks to legalization for undocumented farm workers, advocates say, and includes salaries that union officials say would depress wages for an already low-paid work force.

"Not only are they violating this agreement and breaching a trust here, but they are engaging in an act of political stupidity and folly," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-West Hollywood, the main architect of last year's deal.

But Anthony Bedell, head of an agribusiness coalition, insists there still is room for compromise and that "there will be a few bloody lips, but I think we'll all be friends when it's done."

Craig's measure is in play against a backdrop of negotiations between the Mexican and U.S. governments over the future of immigration between the two countries. President Vicente Fox will visit the Midwest early next week and is expected to reiterate his position on the need for a broad amnesty.

The Mexican government is negotiating with the Bush administration on a package of immigration reforms that encompasses border safety, lifting quotas on Mexican visas, a guest-worker program and legalization for undocumented immigrants.

"There can be no deal on any of the four issues unless there is a deal on all four. It's the whole enchilada or nothing," Jorge Castaneda, Mexico's foreign minister said last month.

Aurelio Martinez, a 34-year-old undocumented farm worker who has picked crops in Orange County and the Central Valley for a decade, is impatient to see some action on an amnesty.

"All the farm-worker programs I've ever heard of are all for temporary workers," said Martinez, who lives in Anaheim with his wife and two children, who joined him in the U.S. four years ago from Zacatecas, Mexico. "I won't benefit from those programs, especially if they make it too hard (to qualify for legal residency)."

The intensified debate over a guest-worker program also comes as an anti-immigration think tank Thursday released a report designed to make lawmakers think twice about allowing more Mexicans into the United States.

According to the study, by the Center for Immigration Studies, Mexican immigrants are much more likely to be poor, lack a high school diploma and to be in competition for the same jobs as native-born Americans on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

Immigration advocates branded the report as immigrant bashing by desperate restrictionists who fear a more open U.S. policy toward immigration.

Craig's bill, immigration supporters say, threatens that new deal.

A major difference between Craig's measure and the Berman deal is the length of time a migrant would have to do farm work before getting a "green card." Craig sets that bar at 150 days a year, or 600 days within four years. That compares with 100 days a year, or 360 days over six years, under the Berman measure.

"Many farm workers just don't work that many days in the agriculture industry," says Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America.

Craig's bill would also bar families of workers now in the U.S. from getting legal status. An aide to Craig insisted that four months is the amount of time the average farm worker spends in the field.

"This bill is a win win win," said Sarah Berk, Craig's press aide. She said it provides freedoms and legal protections for workers, a steady stream of workers for the agriculture industry, and a steady and reliable source of food for consumers.

For Dan Manassero, whose has 50 acres of Orange County farms, a steady work force is essential. He's been behind schedule before because of a lack of workers.

"I think if someone's been here over a certain amount of years, they should be able to become legal residents," Manassero said.

Copyright 2001 Orange County Register