07/18/11 Rep. Elton Gallegly, whose ultimate goal is the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and his former colleague, JD Watts, continue their misleading cheerleading for E-Verify. They've got similar talking points, but both failed to mention the rotting fields in Georgia, thanks to a state E-Verify law.
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07/15/11 As it turns out, undocumented workers aren't really big fans of being targeted while they're doing their job, and farmers aren't so keen on having their workers picked on either. As a result of anti-immigrant legislators passing legislation that scares off undocumented workers, farmers are suffering, and a multi-billion dollar industry is at a significant loss.
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07/12/11 Last week, New America Media asked an important question about an industry directly impacted by immigration: Slow Flow of Immigrants Already Impacting California Farms? Some say yes. Others, not yet. But if Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill passes nationally, there will be a worker shortage -- and crops rotting in the fields.
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07/07/11 Rep. Lamar Smith's battle with Markos Moulitsas (of Daily Kos) continues. Rep. Lamar Smith has very, very thin skin. He does not like to be criticized, nor does he allow any critique of his flawed E-Verify legislation go unrebutted. The problem for Smith is that he's got no facts to back up his position, practically handing off yet another win to Markos.
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07/07/11 Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) sits on both the House Judiciary and Small Business Committees. She's a strong opponent of Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify bill. From her unique vantage point, Chu told her colleagues, "Mandatory E-Verify Legislation will Cripple Small Businesses."
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07/05/11 CBS News went to Georgia to get the story of how that state's new immigration law, with its mandatory E-Verify provision, is impacting the state's agricultural industry. CBS confirms what we've been hearing. Farmers and growing are experiencing an immediate -- and costly -- impact.
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07/01/11 Rep. Lamar Smith claims E-Verify "is not an immigration bill, it's a jobs bill." But, Smith's definition of a "jobs bill" is one that kills 770,000 jobs, forces millions into an administrative quagmire, destroys America's agriculture industry and imposes new taxes and red tape on small business.
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07/01/11 The American agriculture industry "fears a disaster" if Rep. Lamar Smith's E-Verify legislation becomes law. The current situation in Georgia, which passed a state E-Verify and now has crops rotting on the vine, gives credence to those fears. Smith's bill poses grave dangers for farmworkers.
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06/27/11 Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that the U.S. agricultural industry was gravely concern about the prospects of E-Verify legislation, which is sponsored by one-third of our "Three Amigos" on immigration: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): The agriculture industry fears a disaster is on the horizon if the one bit of new immigration policy that Congress seems to agree on becomes law.
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06/24/11 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is promoting his E-Verify program as a "jobs" bill that will ease unemployed Americans' woes. It's telling that the first GOP "jobs plan" introduced this year would send unemployed manufacturing workers in Ohio or Michigan to the fields to pick fruit and vegetables. It's best described as a 21st Century Grapes of Wrath.
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06/16/11 Today in National Review, Mark Krikorian published his response to our long list of criticisms about the mandatory E-Verify bill that Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are pushing.
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06/15/11 Last week, we wrote about how the state of Georgia is facing a labor shortage after passing a harsh anti-immigration law that has chased many of its agricultural workers out. Nearly half of the 132 Georgia businesses polled in a private survey said they were experiencing a shortage of workers, and had a combined total of 11,000 jobs they could not fill.
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06/13/11 Representative Lamar Smith and Elton Gallegly wrote an op-ed in the LA Times about their E-Verify bill. They forgot to mention their plan would cause the loss of almost 800,000 jobs, force 4 million more workers into an administrative quagmire, cause an undue burden on small businesses, nearly wipe out the agricultural workforce, result in the loss of tax revenue – and, to top it off, E-Verify a failure rate of over 50%.
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06/08/11 Last month, Georgia passed one of the harshest new immigration laws in the country. Today, the AJC reports that nearly half of the 132 Georgia businesses polled in a private survey this month say they are experiencing agricultural labor shortages.
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06/07/11 A new study from UC Davis found that stricter Immigration enforcement could have a harmful effect on California's agricultural industry. It could lead to more imports and "significantly boost labor costs."
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06/06/11 Because of the mandatory E-Verify legislation being pushed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the Associated Press reports that "The agriculture industry fears a disaster." Smith and his GOP colleagues are telling the American Agriculture industry to "Drop Dead."
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06/03/11 The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who fancies himself something of an expert on Latino politics, recently sent around a "Dear Colleague" linking to a Rasmussen Reports poll on workplace immigration enforcement. Smith is an ardent advocate of E-Verify and intends to introduce legislation to make it mandatory for all businesses and workers in the U.S.
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05/27/11 Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling to uphold Arizona's law requiring state businesses use the E-Verify system strikes a crushing blow to the Arizona agriculture industry. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) wants mandatory E-Verify at the national level, which would devastate the American Agricultural industry. In the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform at the Federal level, Smith's mandatory E-Verify will deport farms and jobs.
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05/23/11 Imagine if Democrats proposed legislation that would cause the loss of almost 800,000 jobs, force 4 million more workers into an administrative quagmire, cause an undue burden on small businesses, nearly wipe out the agricultural workforce, result in the loss of tax revenue – and had a failure rate of over 50%.
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04/26/11 There's more news for those naysayers who claim that undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Last week, the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimated that in 2010, the state and local taxes paid by households that are headed by undocumented immigrants came to approximately $11.2 billion in state and local taxes.
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04/26/11 California farmers are confirming what we've been saying for months: the immigration policies proposed by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), the chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, pose an economic danger to California and its agricultural industry.
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04/13/11 Ending the day on a positive note, our neighboring state of Maryland passed an in-state tuition bill for undocumented youth, Tuesday evening. The bill now goes to the desk of Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who is expected to sign the legislation into law, thereby bringing Maryland communities together.
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02/10/11 In a January-February 2010 survey of 500 registered Latino voters, 47% chose immigration as their top issue, while 34% selected either jobs or the economy (21% for jobs and 13% for the economy). This is up from November 2010, when 37% of Latino voters chose immigration as their top issue, compared to 48% identifying jobs or the economy (31% for jobs and 17% for the economy).
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11/10/10 Here's an important release from today's media call, organized by Reform Immigration FOR America, in which a bipartisan coalition came together to tell Congress to deliver on real immigration reform like the common-sense DREAM Act, which would allow immigrant youth to obtain citizenship through two years of college or military service and the food security and farmworker legislation known as AgJobs.
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09/27/10 During the only moment at which he "broke character" from his ultraconservative-commentator persona during a Congressional hearing on undocumented farm workers, comedian Stephen Colbert couldn't have been more serious: I like talking about people who don't have any power.
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09/24/10 You've gotta watch this. Via Huffington Post, updates from Stephen Colbert's appearance at a Subcommittee Hearing on Immigration today.
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07/16/10 What does Arizona law SB 1070 have to do with the lettuce crop in Yuma? At first glance, not a lot. But when the harvest season for lettuce and other vegetables comes around in November, that could change. If SB 1070 is implemented, many farmworkers without legal immigration status—or with it—could decide not to go to Arizona out of fear, causing growers to face a shortage of field hands. This, in turn, would affect the amount of vegetables that can be harvested, and ultimately their prices to consumers.
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