Migrant worker reform lacking
Saturday, June 30th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Eric Ferreri and Josh Shaffer, Staff Writers Stalled immigration reform in Washington leaves local authorities in North Carolina waiting, wondering and weary.
For local governments and police agencies, the defeat of a bill this week in the U.S. Senate promising an overhaul to the nation’s immigration laws means that they must continue to deal with illegal immigrants under current, flawed rules.
"It’s clearly a federal issue," said Mike Ruffin, county manager in Durham, where an influx of Hispanic immigrants has taxed county health clinics in the past decade. "We are very much in a reactive mode."
Larry Wooten, president of the N.C. Farm Bureau, the state’s largest advocacy group for farmers, said the bill’s defeat means a continuation of "the status quo" for farmers who rely on migrant labor to tend and harvest crops. He said the bureau was sorry to see the bill defeated but found some solace knowing that the bill’s agricultural component wasn’t a prime target for criticism.
"The issue does not go away for North Carolina farmers," he said. "The issue is real." (more…)
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