By Val Dolcini
Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Pro-Growth and Pro-Agriculture- Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate passed a commonsense immigration reform measure in a strongly bipartisan fashion. This was an important step in the right direction – especially for producers, farm workers and rural communities.
The historic legislation passed by the Senate provides a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million people who are in our country today without authorization. They will have to go to the back of the line, pay fines and settle taxes they owe our nation.
It would modernize the system that we use to bring skilled workers into the United States. And it would put in place the toughest border security plan that America has ever seen – building on steps that have reduced illegal border crossings to their lowest level in decades.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Senate bill would reduce the deficit over the next 20 years by nearly $850 billion, and the Social Security Administration estimates that this immigration bill would add nearly $300 billion to the Social Security system in the next decade.
For California agriculture, this reform bill is also of vital importance. Recently, the White House economic team released a new report highlighting the positive economic benefits that commonsense immigration reform would provide for agriculture and rural America.
The report highlights research showing that, without a stable workforce, America’s record agricultural productivity will decline in coming years. In California, eliminating the immigrant labor force would cost from $1.7 billion to over $3 billion in production-related losses.
The Senate bill addresses this concern by taking much-needed steps to ensure a stable agricultural workforce, and a fair system for U.S. producers and farm workers. In particular, it would give qualifying farm workers an expedited path to earned citizenship, as long as they continue to work in agriculture. A new temporary worker program would replace the current H-2A visa program over time, and allow farm workers a three-year visa to work year-round in any agricultural job.
This commonsense system wouldn’t just prevent a decline in production – it would grow the economy. Research highlighted in the White House report projects that an expanded temporary worker program would increase both production and exports across our agriculture sector.
Under the Senate proposal, USDA would play a greater role in implementing farm labor programs and ensuring that farmers and ranchers have all the information they need. As Congress continues to work on this issue, Secretary Vilsack and all of us at USDA are committed to working with lawmakers to be sure they have any technical assistance they might need to finalize these proposals.
Immigration reform is very important for farmers, farm workers and communities across rural America, and the proposal before the Congress is supported by a diverse coalition ranging from the United Farm Workers to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Nearly 75% of California’s farm workers are non-citizens, and their hard work has helped our state’s farmers and ranchers lead the world in productivity. To remain competitive and keep driving economic growth in rural America, we need rules that work. Rural America needs Congress to act as soon as possible to carry forward the work of the U.S. Senate and fix today’s broken immigration system.
The following remarks were delivered by Val Dolcini at the “Naturalization Ceremony” in Sacramento, California on August 21, 2013 – “A Call to Service”
My … Fellow … Americans … sounds good, doesn’t it?
You’ve all worked so very hard to hear those words, so let me repeat them: My Fellow Americans! Let me be among the first to congratulate all of you, your family, and your friends, on this tremendous accomplishment. American citizenship is a prized possession, sought by many, granted to few, so take pride in your hard work and in the journey that brought you here today.
You know, everyone in this hall has an immigrant story. Let me tell you a little about my own. I stand before you today a fourth generation Californian.
On my father’s side, my ancestors came from the British Isles, Switzerland, Germany, and other European nations. They were American pioneers who crossed the Great Plains in covered wagons in the 1850s to help build the new state of California.
On my mother’s side, they were Italian immigrants who came to this country through Ellis Island in the early 20th century under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
My immigrant ancestors were prospectors and public servants, farmers and furniture salesmen, they were teachers, small business owners, professors, and lawyers.
They were men and women who served our nation in war and in peace, and they marched for civil rights and rallied for social justice. But they also coached Little League, volunteered in their children’s schools, and helped to build their communities.
And their stories are not so very different from your own.
In my day job as the State Director of the US Department of Agriculture, I like to tell people that I’m in the American Dream business. The loans that I make to farmers and ranchers help them to build their American dreams. Developing new businesses, expanding their markets, hiring more employees, and building greater financial security for their families.
Immigrants, and today, new citizens like you, are obviously dreamers, too. Like my ancestors, you came to this country looking to build your own version of the American dream.
Seeking a better life … looking for greater economic opportunity … escaping war and political persecution … and building a brighter future for your children.
You’ve chosen the fertile soil of America to build your dream and for that I salute you … and your new country needs you!
It needs your active citizenship in our democracy.
It needs your entrepreneurial spirit to help sustain our economy.
It needs your diverse cultural contributions to strengthen our American mosaic.
It needs your engagement in the schools, churches, and civic institutions of our towns and cities.
America, my friends, needs you.
Over 50 years ago, our 35th president, John F Kennedy famously asked “not what your country could do for you, but what you could do for your country.”
It’s time for you to accept that challenge, that mantle of responsibility that your citizenship carries with it. It’s time for you to serve your new nation.
My fellow Americans, your new country needs you now to write the next chapter of your own American dream story and to proudly stamp it Made in America!
Congratulations on becoming citizens of the greatest nation on earth!
May God bless all of you and may God bless the United States of America!
Val Dolcini is a longtime Davis resident and the State Executive Director of the US Department of Agriculture in California. He can be reached at val.dolcini@ca.usda.gov.
Nice speech! It will help to further the process of clearing away the mental cobwebs many harbor that lead to prejudice and discrimination. Many seem to forget that many of the undocumented workers here today have ancestors who were here hundreds and even thousands of years before we were.
Many important facts are forgotten, such as the fact that California used to be under Mexican rule. Another fact: the Spanish flag used to fly over the land that UC Berkeley sits on now.
“The report highlights research showing that, without a stable workforce, America’s record agricultural productivity will decline in coming years. In California, eliminating the immigrant labor force would cost from $1.7 billion to over $3 billion in production-related losses.”
this is a huge point that critics seem to fail to recognize
[i]”The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Senate bill would reduce the deficit over the next 20 years by nearly $850 billion, and the Social Security Administration estimates that this immigration bill would add nearly $300 billion to the Social Security system in the next decade.”[/i]
From a purely practical perspective, isn’t $850 billion a terrible thing to waste?
Excellent welcome, Val Dolcini!
Remember, the IRS was/is supposed to be non-partisan too…
[quote]However, Rector spotlighted the CBO’s page 14 prediction that the bill’s much-touted border security, work verification and a visitor tracking measures would only stop one-quarter of future illegal immigrants. “CBO estimates that, under the bill, the net annual flow of unauthorized residents would decrease by about 25 percent relative to what would occur under current law,” said the cost estimate.
The bill’s one-in-four reduction would leave the United States with 4.8 million new illegal immigrants by 2023, and 10 million illegal immigrants by 2033, the report suggested.
“The net cost of those illegals alone would be $400 billion over that period,” Rector said.
Rector is the chief author of a May study that predicted the bill’s proposed amnesty for 11.5 million illegal immigrants would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion over 50 years. Rector and Heritage’s leadership oppose the new bill.
The CBO declined to incorporate the cost of future illegal immigration, even though it said the new bill will encourage some illegal immigration.[/quote]
Who is “Rector,” and what does he know, and what does the IRS have to do with any of this?
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rector[/url]
Thanks. I loved “Steering the Elephant” ’cause I was back there trying to at the time. And, he’s got great hair. Now, if I only could make the IRS connection…
Sorry, it was a bit disconnected. My point was that since the IRS harassed only the political non-profits supporting Republicans, it is easy to discount the so-called “non-partisan” CBO as being biased too.
Frankly there are few if any government agencies I rely on as non-partisan since they all gravitate to serving their own self interests. And, other than maybe the military, CIA, FBI, Dept of Ag., most would be better served with Democrats in power.
Re: “The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Senate bill would reduce the deficit over the next 20 years by nearly $850 billion, and the Social Security Administration estimates that this immigration bill would add nearly $300 billion to the Social Security system in the next decade”
The CBO is lobbied as fiercely as other legislative bodies; non-partisan is irrelevant; both parties are pro big-money (finance, banking, corporate).Would like to see how the $850 billion estimate is conjured.
Perhaps more plausibly could add $300 billion to social security in 1 decade; divide that by 10 million immigrants getting new citizenship comes out to $30,000 per person per decade; or $3,000 per person per year–will this come anywhere close to covering costs of these new citizens when they in turn need to retire? (more passing of bigger problems to our grandkids).
Frankly cites the Heritage Foundation run by Jim Demint ex-right wing senator and mentor to Ted Cruz. The heritage Foundation is about as right wing as it gets.
According to Media Transparency, the Heritage Foundation received $61,944,537 in foundation grants from organizations such as: the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Scaife Foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation, Inc., Castle Rock Foundation, JM Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. – See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/heritage-foundation#sthash.DK9Bt5KU.dpuf