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Vilsack and Napolitano support immigration bill

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano support the Senate immigration bill that Vilsack says will be good for agriculture.

“And there’s no question that absent it, we will continue to have shortages and we will risk the possibility of some agricultural production in the United States that’s taking place today migrating outside the United States. We know if California that roughly 80-thousand acres of production has already moved out of the country because of labor shortages.”

Vilsack says the immigration reform in the bill is necessary for agriculture.

Secretary Napolitano told reporters she knows the border well and says the Senate proposal is “a great border security bill.” She says it sustains and enhances border controls and will increase the number of officers at land ports of entry. Plus, she says, “It has an entry-exit provision so that we can better ascertain who has overstayed their Visa and find them and remove them from the country should they need to be removed.”

The bill adds 6.5 Billion Dollars to secure the US southwest border with Mexico and would allow most of the nation’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship within 13 years.

AUDIO: Tom Vilsack, Janet Napolitao (12:00 mp3)