U.S. Fruit and Vegetable Industry is one the is very labor intensive. Simply shutting American’s door to immigrant farm workers is not the solution.
Reduction in the supply of workers that could make agricultural labor more expensive for the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry may impact industry competitiveness but the effects would vary by commodity that would lead to the extintion of American farms, American jobs and heavy importing of fruits , vegetables and other food items.
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Farmers Oppose G.O.P. Bill on Immigration
7/30/11 By JESSE McKINLEY and JULIA PRESTON
Farmers across the country are rallying to fight a Republican-sponsored bill, Legal Workforce Act H.R. 2164 (E-Verify), that would force them and all other employers to verify the legal immigration status of their workers, a move some say could imperil not only future harvests but also the agricultural community’s traditional support for conservative candidates.
The bill was proposed by Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It would require farmers — who have long relied on a labor force of immigrants, a majority here without legal documents — to check all new hires through E-Verify, a federal database run by the Department of Homeland Security devised to ferret out illegal immigrants.
For the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/politics/31verify.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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Texas Democrats attack GOP Rep. Lamar Smith over HALT Act
July 22, 2011 Julian Aguilar – Texas Tribune
AUSTIN — Republican U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith’s attempt to strip President Barack Obama’s administration of its immigration enforcement powers has drawn a harsh rebuke from Texas Democrats in the U.S. House, who say the proposal “is an attack on (the president’s) integrity that should not pass unnoticed or unopposed.”
Smith, R-San Antonio, this month introduced the Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation (HALT) Act, which would prevent the administration from, among other things, canceling the removal of illegal immigrants, granting protective status to any immigrant and granting parole or issuing deferred action —except in narrow circumstances. It is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La.
For the entire article: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/democrats-53082-texas-gop.html
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The Kochs’ quest
10/13/2012 09:11:44 PM PDT By Bill Wilson and Roy Wenzl – The Wichita Eagle
WICHITA, Kan. — In January 2009, just days after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Charles and David Koch met in their company headquarters in Wichita with their longtime political strategist, Rich Fink.
The country was headed toward bankruptcy, they agreed. Fink told them bluntly that Obama’s administration represented the worst of what Charles and David fear most: a bloated, regulation-heavy, free-spending government that could plunge the country into another deep recession. That day, Fink advised two of the richest men in the nation that it would be the fight of their lives to stop the government spending spree and to change the course of the country, starting with the 2012 election.
“If we are going to do this, we should do it right or not at all,” Fink, 61, recalled telling the brothers. “But if we don’t do it right or if we don’t do it at all, we will be insignificant and we will just waste a lot of time and I would rather play golf.
“And if we do it right, then it is going to get very, very ugly.”
Three and a half years later, Obama accused the Koch brothers of engineering “a corporate takeover of our democracy.”
The brothers’ political spending and the network of conservative political organizations and think tanks they fund have sparked protests. The condemnations and criticism prompted Charles Koch to break his silence about politics. In his most extensive interview in 15 years, Charles Koch talked about why he wants to defeat Obama and elect members of Congress who will stop what he calls catastrophic overspending.
Government recklessness threatens the country and his business, he said.
The Kochs say the price for their involvement has been high: Death threats, cyberattacks on their business, hundreds of news stories criticizing them, calls for boycotts of the company’s consumer goods, and what the brothers see as ongoing and public attacks from the Obama administration.
The Kochs aren’t finished. Win or lose in November, they plan to start a new fight. They are organizing dozens of business and grass roots groups to build support for eliminating all corporate and agricultural subsidies.
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Ending agricultural subsidies would mean that American businesses would have to raise their prices and USA farmers would not be able to compete with cheap and inferior and unsafe imports.
* American diary farms would be impacted
* American vegetable and fruit farms would would be impacted
* American grain farms for human would be impacted
* American pork, beef and chicken farms would be impacted
* American nut farms would be impacted
* American fiber producers (cotton, wool, wood etc) would be impacted
* American gasoline would be impacted
There are many more that industries that would impacted.
Posted by CR 
