 Recently, we heard from Larry Wooten, President of the North Carolina Farm Bureau on the current situation with guest workers and immigration reform. Earlier, Wooten stated that NCFB was squarely against states involvement in immigration reform, but wouldn’t be opposed if states worked together to pressure congress to act:
“I say that this immigration issue is the second biggest issue facing the nation behind our economic and fiscal condition. This immigration issue is huge and needs to be dealt with and if our state legislature were to do anything what they need to do is unite with other state legislatures across the nation and demand that Congress address this issue sooner rather than later.
Certainly, we do not support amnesty, but, there are a lot of people that would like to be here that are already here, that are working that need to work, that we need for them to work, that don’t want to be citizens. But, we need to let them have some system so that they can be properly identified and continue to work.”
Earlier this week, Pew Research Center released a study showing the many illegal immigrants, particularly from Mexico are going back. Wooten feels that it’s a function of both economies, among other situations:
“There’s no question about it, we’re tightening up our borders, everybody agrees with t hat, we need to know who’s in the country, we need to have border security. But, the economic conditions in Mexico are improving there are less people wanting to come here, with our economy there are more people going back because there are no jobs here. And so, what’s going on with Mexico is certainly a function of jobs and economic development in Mexico, it’s also a function in difficulty in crossing the border. As you well know, there are some horrendous, very dangerous problems along the border with United States and Mexico it’s dangerous for many people to travel through that border without the proper credentials.”
President of the North Carolina Farm Bureau, Larry Wooten.
You can read more from the Pew Research Center study by clicking here.
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