By Arizona Republic Editorial Board
The conservatives still asking why it’s a good idea to legalize agricultural workers and “Dreamers” just need to ask farm growers and economists.
The answer is simple. The young immigrants called “Dreamers” pour billions into the U.S. economy, and the American agricultural industry that feeds our nation desperately need an orderly and legal flow of workers.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives recently approved two separate bills to do just that.
But those bills face stiff opposition in the U.S. Senate, where conservatives are more animated by the current migrant children crisis at the U.S-Mexico border than the important work of helping farmers and “Dreamers.”
The opportunity to make real progress on the latter is here. Democrats are ready to take up the bills in the Senate, but they need at least 10 Republicans to support them.
“A pathway to permanent residency for Dreamers and agricultural workers should be a no brainer. Both of these groups of immigrants tend to poll favorably regardless of party politics, and our nation will be safer and better equipped to recover from the pandemic with their place in our country more secured and less tenuous. Let’s hope Congress can get this done.”
Darius Amiri, Rose Law Group Immigration Law Dept. Chair
