ISSUES POLICY
A Workable Fix for Working Immigrants
W
By Pete Bonds, fi rst vice president, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
HEN I WAS A KID I WORKED outside on the ranch from sunup until sun-
down. When my girls were old enough, they did the same thing. Working right alongside them was a handful of migrant workers who helped us with the hard and physi- cal labor of running a successful cow-calf operation. These migrant workers weren’t
just faceless workers. They were family. They spent their days work- ing to support their families back home, and at Thanksgiving and Christmas they would sit down at the dinner table with the rest of us. Unfortunately, our current im-
migration program doesn’t allow these workers to come here legally. Instead most of them travel here illegally, and in doing so they risk their lives to work and provide for their families. And employers who desperately need a labor force face charges and steep fi nes if they em- ploy these workers. This is a problem that must be
fi xed. Washington is fi nally working toward reforming this country’s
60 The Cattleman July 2013
broken immigration system. I am glad to see that in both chambers of Congress, a true fi x to our coun- try’s guest worker program is being considered. However, I worry that the skewed notion that a practi- cal guest worker program implies blanket amnesty might set back any progress. Let’s be clear: ranchers don’t
support blanket amnesty. Amnesty and citizenship should be a sepa- rate debate. Let’s also be clear that these workers aren’t taking away American jobs. At our ranch in Falls County — a county with a high un- employment rate — we can’t fi nd U.S. citizens who will do the hard work of ranching. We go through 5 or 10 U.S. employees a year be- cause when we do fi nd someone, they typically quit within a few weeks. Migrant workers are simply doing the jobs that most Americans refuse to do. The livestock industry needs a
steady, year-round workforce. This is why Texas ranchers support a plan that allows immigrants who want to work in the U.S. an oppor- tunity to do so.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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