Speaker McCarthy: ‘Secure the border first’ before immigration reform can take place

The road to immigration reform, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, must start at the U.S.-México border.

“The first (thing) has to be done, you have to secure the border before you have any immigration reform,” said the Bakersfield Republican who attended the World Ag Expo on Tuesday.

“What’s happened in this administration by opening up our borders has broken down society,” said McCarthy, who represents the agriculturally rich 20th District.

McCarthy, the keynote speaker at the expos’ opening ceremony, said, “we’ve watched that just in the short timeframe of this year, the number of people that have been caught that are on the terrorist watch list is greater than the entire time in the last administration.”

McCarthy said he will be in Arizona on Thursday and take a number of freshmen members to the border.

Congress, he said, needs “to try to solve this problem, secure our border. Once we get the border solved we can move forward.”

McCarthy has not outlined any plans on immigration beyond securing the border.

Immigration reform has been elusive for federal lawmakers ever since President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986, which resulted in permanent residency status for more than 2.7 million previously undocumented residents.

“America is the most giving when it comes to immigration, more than a million people a year become American citizens, and we want to continue that because that’s how all of us got here,” McCarthy said.

“The idea that you are cutting in line, the idea of just breaking down society is going to hurt us. “The first thing we have to do is secure our border, this administration has broken. So, once we’re able to secure it, I think we can move forward with immigration reform,”

The closest effort was in 2013 when the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration overhaul bill on a 68-32 vote only to see that legislation die when House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, refused to bring the bill up for a vote despite indications it had enough support to pass.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-Pennsylvania, spent time at the expo at a farm bill listening session. He agrees with McCarthy about the border.

“We need to control the border, probably the better word. And we don’t have that right now,” said Thompson.

Thompson said while the agricultural workforce is really important, unfortunately immigration reform is not under the jurisdiction of the Agricultural Committee but the Judiciary Committee.

While the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA) failed to pass in the Senate, it would have provided legal immigration status for undocumented field workers.

However, Thompson said the agriculture committee members are very interested in seeing what’s next, when the timing is right, “what can we do for the American farmer and rancher and forester and quite frankly, processors, because you can’t have production without processing to get access to the workforce that we need, whether it’s domestic or foreign workforce.”

McCarthy said that while anything like the FWMA won’t be in the farm bill, there is always the capability to have a discussion.

McCarthy was also in the Farm Bill listening session with Thompson, Congressman David Valadao, R-Hanford and other bipartisan members of congress including Congressman Jim Costa, D-Fresno.

Immigration Reform the appropriate thing to do

While the farm bill doesn’t address immigration, Congressman Salud Carbajal, a Democrat from Santa Bárbara, said “there’s an advocacy and a given in the farming community, that there’s labor shortages. And when you consider the labor shortages and challenges that farms are having, it raises the issue of immigration reform.”

“Last term, we worked on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would have provided a legalization path for farmworkers, a pool of labor, security and sustainability for farmers, as well as reforming the H2A program,” Carbajal said. “We certainly need immigration reform for our farm workers, because it’s the appropriate thing to do for them. And the labor and the contributions they make to our economy and the farms, and also the important labor that they provide to our farms that we need to also help our farmers. So I think we need to do that.”

Congressman Jimmy Panetta, a Monterey County Democrat, said having champions like Costa, Carbajal, Zoe Lofgren (D-Bay Area) and himself are going to continue to push back a version of the Farm workforce Modernization Act.

That bill, said Panetta, was “something that took into account and gave credit to everything that our farmworkers have done. They are people who are willing to come here, contribute here and be a part of our community on top of a part in the central part of our economy, especially in agriculture.“

Panetta said people need to realize that no American will do that type of work adding that is important to make sure farmworkers, agricultural, economic, culture are protected, as well as “being so accepting of those who are willing to come here and contribute to who we are and what you stand for as a country.”

Costa said farmworkers are a critical component of “putting food on the Americans dinner table every night.”“These are some of the hardest working people you ever meet in your life,” Costa said of the need to come back with at least a Farmworkers Modernization Act.

“Both Jimmy Panetta and I are going to do our very best to see if we can maintain that bipartisan effort for farmworkers to have legal status, ultimately a path to citizenship,” Costa said.

Freshman Congressman John Duarte, a Republican from Modesto, agrees with McCarthy when it comes to securing the border.

“We need a guest worker program immediately. We need a legal legal presence for people who are already here and who are already productive members of our communities,” said Duarte.

“And our communities need these people to come out of the shadows and lead a mainstream line. So these are priorities for me,” Duarte said, adding that he doesn’t think there’s any realistic political appetite for immigration reform until “we secure the border. That’s the conversation starter. And then I think there is an appetite to get real reform and solve some of these long term problems.”

Valadao, who has been a long time immigration reform supporter and has cosponsored legislation that made it off the House floor but didn’t make it out of the Senate, said there is “a lot of will to do it. I don’t know if there’s enough.”

“We need the president to be involved. I think the president has to take some responsibility on the border and start to show some leadership there,” Valadao said. “And I think that would help us bring some of our Republican colleagues on the Senate on board and give us in a position we can actually pass the bill.”

Manuel Cunha, president of Nisei Farmers League, said farmers depend on farmworkers, many who are undocumented and congress haven’t had the responsibility to pass a legislation to make those families whole.

“Give them work authorizations, that’s all we are asking. Give them work authorization so they can go and come and they can be safe,” Cunha said, adding that the farm bill committee has a strong influence and why he attended the farm bill session. “I hope that they take concern about that, and really address it and try to work with the judiciary committee to make that happen. Because I know Chairman Thompson can do that.”

Cunha said if McCarthy wants to secure the border, to do that but also allow ag and DACA to happen and make those people residents.

“Do them both together,” said Cunha, who has been involved in immigration for a long time including being part of IRCA the immigration reform of 1986.

Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO, Ryan Jacobsen said “immigration reform is one of the top priorities for California agriculture.”

“We’re so dependent upon these individuals that are doing an amazing job of helping us bring in these crops that are grown here in California,” Jacobsen said.

While California agriculture is one of the most front and center when it comes to this particular issue of immigration reform, Jacobsen said, it is complicated and while it might not happen tomorrow they will continue to push for it.

“And hope that we can see this within a relatively reasonable amount of time because these people are so important to what we do and obviously they’ve been there through the pandemic. They’ve been there through the wildfires, have been there through so many things and we want to make sure that those folks you take care of,” Jacobsen said.