Farms and Immigrants

The immigration system, broken in a thousand places, needs a multitude of fixes, from the borders to the workplace to the status of would-be Americans waiting in limbo overseas and toiling in shadows here. A new bill called AgJobs, introduced in the House and Senate, addresses some of those problems. It seeks to relieve chronic farm labor shortages while protecting rights and opportunities for immigrant workers.

The legislation, which has bipartisan support, is the result of years of negotiations between growers and workers’ advocates. Growers and workers are tied together, but their interests are highly prone to collision, as anyone who remembers the California farmworker strikes of the 1970s knows.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/16sat2.html?_r=1New York Times Editorial