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Processors’ coalition provides testimony on immigration
Story Date: 2/27/2013
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Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 2/27/13
A visa program designed to allow immigrants to work in the United States on a seasonal basis does little to help protein processors and other food manufacturing operations whose needs are year-round, according to testimony given Tuesday by a coalition of protein processors before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.
The Food Manufacturers Immigration Coalition worked together on comments delivered by National Chicken Council President Mike Brown.
“To date much of the discussion has focused on the need to retain highly skilled workers such as scientists and engineers, and the need for additional temporary agricultural workers,” Brown said, as quoted in a news release issued by the coalition. “These are important objectives, but they do not meet the needs of our industry sector. We are manufacturers, wanting a stable and permanent workforce that can help sustain the rural communities where we do business.”
The processors emphasized five major themes for immigration reform:
Border securityImprovements to the E-verify system as an alternative to a national identity cardClarity in anti-discrimination lawsAn occupational visa category that the industry can use that could be tied to local or regional employmentOptions to address the 11 million undocumented workers estimated to be in the United States now.
The industry’s needs
“We need a comprehensive package [that includes], obviously, enforcement and a fast way to earn legal status,” Barry Carpenter, CEO of the North American Meat Association, told Meatingplace in an interview after the hearing. “We can’t ignore the 11 million; we need to be able to [hire] them while they earn [citizenship or residency] by whatever method it is to become legal.”
In a visa program, “What we’re looking for is not a temporary guest worker [program]. We’re looking for something that will serve for a couple of years; by the time you get done training and food safety and worker safety we need more time,” Carpenter said.
The coalition of processors testified at the hearing along with representatives from the farm economy and labor. “Most of the discussion by the other witnesses was on what’s wrong with the current program, but the current program doesn’t work for us at all,” Carpenter noted.
Employers in the meat industry also want more clarity on the conflicting laws that require them to take steps to avoid hiring illegal immigrants, on the one hand, but hold them responsible for potentially discriminatory behavior — for example, asking a prospective employee too many questions about ethnicity or country of origin.
“We need a safe harbor for our employers,” Carpenter explained. “If an employer is following the rules, then they shouldn’t be held accountable if something goes wrong.”
One idea the coalition put forth was that of a self-serve E-verify program, through which job applicants could be required by the companies they apply to, to check their own status in the system and make sure there are no inaccuracies.
But the coalition’s comments made it clear that the processors see all five of the proposal’s elements are equally important: “If you don’t address all of them you’ve got a flawed program. To be successful, we need all five of these things to be addressed,” Carpenter said.
Timeframe
Time is of the essence, the coalition members believe. “If we didn’t get it done in the early part of this Congress, we wouldn’t get it done,” Carpenter said was the consensus.
Reading the tea leaves, Carpenter notes that comprehensive immigration reform is one of maybe three major initiatives that Congress will get to this spring, the other two being gun control and “probably something to do with the budget.” Given the controversy and partisanship that the other two topics engender, ”immigration looks like something Congress can do that people will like. “
Carpenter thinks legislators will take action by late spring or early summer.
Coalition members
The organizations that have formed the Food Manufacturers Immigration Coalition include:
National Chicken Council
National Turkey Federation
U.S. Poultry & Egg Association
North American Meat AssociationAmerican Meat Institute
California Poultry Federation
Georgia Poultry Federation
The Poultry Federation (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma)
Virginia Poultry Federation
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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