Immigrant Love

Immigrant Love

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
There are so many ways to look at our policy towards immigrants and immigrant labor. Last week we did a couple of stories in which Idaho dairy men representative Bob Naerbout presented all kinds of numbers that illustrate the fact that agriculture needs foreign-born people to handle jobs that Americans simply will not do. You might remember that he quoted numbers from the USDA and Department of Labor studies that estimate between 40% and 70% of all the labor in agriculture across this country comes from migrant workers. He argued that special legal status should be set up to accommodate this huge labor force.

 

At a press conference at the Idaho Farm Bureau, Pastor Mike Schlagel Prehime took a different posture than pure numbers. He spoke to the misguided fears of immigrants saying it is time to move forward with policy based on love and care. "So much of the fear that is around immigration reform is economic fear. Fear of loss of jobs, fear that the economic system is being unduly burdened by immigrants. My colleagues have shared that that is not true. Our immigrant families, brothers and sisters, are contributing to the economy, they are providing jobs, they are filling jobs that are necessary and needed. We can create policy that is based out of love and care. That is because it is a positive economic impact. Many of those fears that we have and that we speak about in our political rhetoric are not true fears. They are true fears in that it is a legitimate fear to be fearful about

 

Previous ReportNaerbout Stance
Next ReportSnow Mold