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Vilsack calls for immigration ‘fix’
Tom Vilsack has just a few days remaining in his eight-year stretch as U.S. Ag Secretary — and he is urging farm groups to press the new congress and President-elect Trump for a “legitimate conversation” about immigration policy.
“As important as regulations are, as important as tax policy is, as important as trade is, if you don’t have a workforce, you’re not going to have product to sell,” Vilsack says.
Vilsack acknowledges the country’s immigration system is “broken” and says it’s time to fix it.
“We need to secure the border, but we also have to create some kind of stability in this workforce, particularly in the agricultural space, because 70 percent of our food is touched at some point in time by an immigrant hand,” Vilsack says. “And a substantial number of those folks came here probably without authority, but need some kind of pathway to legitimacy.”
The American Farm Bureau estimates agricultural output would decline by as much as 60 billion dollars if the farm sector no longer has access to immigrant labor.
“Rural America, rural people, farmers and ranchers who have something specifically at stake have an incredibly strong and powerful voice to say to our policy leaders: ‘This is an issue that needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed right’,” Vilsack says.
According to the USDA, 25 percent of hired farm workers who are immigrants are working in the Midwest, primarily in livestock operations.
Vilsack made his comments earlier this month at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual meeting in Des Moines.
Radio Iowa contributed to this story.
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Tags: farm labor, immigration, Tom Vilsack
How about hiring Americans!!!!!