In November, dairy producers gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, for a Dairy Policy Summit hosted by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW). During the session “Immigration Reform: What’s Really the Issue?” four speakers addressed this controversial topic and what it means for agriculture. Here are excerpts of statements made by presenters at the Summit: “My point is this country has always had people to do those jobs that the rest of society thought was minor. That hasn’t changed. We still have that great need. This isn’t about numbers. It’s not about unemployment.
It’s not even about immigration. This subject is about lack of production and being unproductive in our country … This great country can’t even produce enough to sustain itself.
At a time when we are less productive than we have ever been in the history of our country, we are cutting off the hand that actually feeds us when we approach these severe penalties.”
Bill Wright
Utah state representative
“A couple of inconvenient truths about this issue. One, you cannot solve this problem without squarely addressing the work authorization status of the current workforce. If you try, you’ve got to figure out how to get rid of a million people so you can get a million people back.
So it is double the effort at least right at the outset. Plus, think about the skill you lose…Just think about the talents and skills that go out the window. We will be destroying what career ladder exists in our industries if we make these people all go away.”
Craig Regelbrugge
Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform
“It is the most complex and dynamic political issue of domestic policy facing the country. There are no clear lines on where somebody is going to line up on immigration.
It doesn’t cut cleanly on Republican lines or Democratic lines; rural versus urban; union, non-union; north, south, east, west; it is all over the map, which from an academic perspective makes it fascinating. For somebody trying to run a business, it’s maddening.”
Leon Sequeira
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
“(In a survey of Georgia dairy producers it was revealed) 87 percent of the dairies with 87 percent of the cows could not operate without immigrant workers. This is something we’d like to educate the public about: You may be able to do away with the workers, but you’ll do away with the industry as well."
"Some industries just will not exist without immigrant workers.”
“What do we need? We need some kind of guest worker program that allows these immigrants to pay a fine, to work out some way they can work legally, to have a driver’s license, to be insured, but not necessarily be a pathway to citizenship."
"I know that raises a big issue. It’s just a common-sense answer because these people contribute a whole lot more than they take back.”
Everett Williams
Georgia Milk Producers
