I attended the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association’s two-day annual meeting this week. The farmers at the conference, mostly from the Western U.S., were polled using an App during the main session and were asked about the main problems currently confronting them.

It was no surprise that the top three issues concerning the growers are: 1. Labor, 2. Water, and 3. Input costs. Following down the list on the ‘word cloud’ were drought, weather, profitability and supply-chain concerns. But the No. 1 problem was labor.

During my entire working career in the meat industry, legal immigrants have been essential to keeping production lines going. In the six USDA plants I’ve worked, and the hundreds of others I’ve toured nationally, it’s pretty easy to identify the demographics working on the slaughter floors and production lines. The bottom line is that we need legal immigrants to do the jobs that most Americans are unwilling to do.

Of course, this need for legal, hard-working immigrants is not unique to the meat industry. Our farms, dairies, restaurants, hotels, freight industries, etc., also need these workers. We definitely need to continue legal immigration, while at the same time curtailing out-of-control illegal immigration. There’s a world of difference in outcomes between the two.

Over the years, I’ve attended industry legislative sessions, work groups, visited representatives and senators in D.C., met with lobbyists, and listened in on a few committee meetings. What I’ve come away with is the stark realization that effective immigration reform may never happen. And that could be the end of our social and economic stability.

No administration in my working career has successfully taken on the task of reforming immigration. Yes, you could argue that President Trump, with his “build the wall” agenda, did attempt to at least try to reign in the flow of illegal immigrants. But was that the long-term solution we need? I would argue that approach was overly simplistic. What we need is bi-partisan support for new laws, including ideas and practical solutions to fix both the border and the labor shortage crises. Protecting the border may be the start of real reform, but there also has to be a better way for immigrants to get the work visas they need in order to cross the border efficiently and lawfully.

In the coming blogs, I’ll attempt to offer some solutions that would hopefully help. Please share your ideas, too.

Where I work in Denver, it’s a ‘sanctuary city.’ In recent years, there’s been a massive influx of illegal immigrants into the Mile-High City from all over the world. It’s created a genuine crisis. I have mixed feelings about how to best help these people. On one hand, they need work, and their lives back where they came from must have been pretty bleak. These people mostly live in super cramped spaces and get started by looking for free stuff on Craigslist and Marketplace. I want to help them. I admire their courage and their efforts to try to find a better life. Unless you’re a Native American, you’re family also immigrated here back in the day. So I want to be compassionate.

But on the other hand, our laws must mean something. If we don’t enforce our laws, then why even have them? If we aren’t going to effectively protect our borders, why spend the money on border patrol protection and enforcement? With our dysfunctional immigration policies, and our largely under-enforced laws, we’re enabling a lot of evil practices to continue. The ongoing flood of drug smuggling and human trafficking that occurs in huge daily waves by the criminal drug cartels is quickly eroding the safety and stability of our cities and indeed our nation. And imagine the damage it’s doing to the poor immigrants along the way, especially women and children.

Some have thrown their hands up in the air and conceded this issue is just too big to fix. It’s so far out of control it appears there’s no way out. Our government is so politically divided and dysfunctional that there’s likely no solution coming. Do you hold this position?

Or do you have some potential solutions to offer for some commonsense fixes?

What’s been your experience with immigration reform, or with hiring and working with immigrants?

Immigration reform: Will we ever find a solution?

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