Senate Committee Passes Amnesty for Illegal Ag Workers
(May 16)
At yesterday's markup of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee committed an outrageous act of disrespect for our men and women in uniform and to the citizens of this country by adopting an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that gives amnesty to illegal-alien agricultural workers. The amendment indicates a maximum of 1.35 million illegal alien ag workers could obtain "emergency agricultural worker status" for a five-year period. Since their families also can obtain this status, it is estimated that the total number receiving an amnesty would reach 3 million.

A vote by the full Senate may occur early next week...

...The most important point to stress is that there is no need for an amnesty to provide growers with workers. There already is an H-2A foreign ag worker program that provides growers with an unlimited number of temporary workers if the growers agree to pay a decent wage and ensure that they go home at the end of the season. Feinstein is just trying to protect the abysmally low wages and bad working conditions that farmworkers labor under....

Victory! Amnesty, Other Measures Stripped from Iraq Spending Bill
(May 22)

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) removed the final objectionable immigration measure from the Iraq supplemental spending bill (H.R. 2642) when he stripped provisions that would have increased H-2B visas for unskilled seasonal workers.