Topeika Capital-Journal (Editorial): Kansas farmers, ranchers and dairy and feedlot operators say they are having a difficult time finding sufficient employees among the pool of U.S. citizens and legal immigrant workers.
Given the nature of those businesses and the population base in rural areas where many of them are located, we don't doubt the need for labor. But creating a system through which illegal immigrants would be courted to fill the jobs isn't the way to solve the problem.
Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a waiver to establish a pilot program through which undocumented immigrants with no criminal background could be recruited by sponsor companies to fill their job openings.
If a waiver is granted which isn't a sure thing and the state establishes the employer-illegal immigrant network, the program would look for illegal immigrants who have been in Kansas a minimum of five years for the labor pool.
We support the states agricultural industry and all those who toil to make it work. We don't endorse exempting it from the rules.
If nothing else, the system Rodman proposes documents this country's convoluted positions on illegal immigrants.
To oversimplify, on one hand are those who support nothing but rounding up all illegal immigrants and sending them home, thinking that will solve a problem and free jobs for citizens and legal immigrants. On the other hand are those who realize illegal immigrants come to the United States in search of work and will continue to enter the country and risk death doing so as long as they think they can find work here.
That huge contradiction, however, is a federal issue and should be solved at that level, uniformly. Granting a waiver for a specific industry in one state only muddies the immigration waters and lets the federal government further ignore its responsibility to deal with the problem in one way or another.
The fact work is available is evidenced by the clamors from the agricultural industry and the fact Rodman and others think illegal immigrants who are experienced workers and have been in Kansas five years can be found in sufficient numbers to help.
Were writing here about the agricultural industry and its labor problem, but in addition to the Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Chamber of Commerce and some local chamber affiliates, supporters of Rodman's proposal also include building industry organizations.
And lest anyone forget, what Rodman, the organizations listed above and some legislators are supporting will be frowned upon by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has invested a lot of his time in drafting laws for states where officials in the round them up and send them home camp are in the majority.
It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that Kobach's beliefs and his current position play some role in the push to make some illegal immigrants not quite so illegal, and free to remain in the state and work openly.
Regardless, immigration is a federal issue to be handled at that level, not by a waiver or waivers to selected industries in selected states.
Given the nature of those businesses and the population base in rural areas where many of them are located, we don't doubt the need for labor. But creating a system through which illegal immigrants would be courted to fill the jobs isn't the way to solve the problem.
Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a waiver to establish a pilot program through which undocumented immigrants with no criminal background could be recruited by sponsor companies to fill their job openings.
If a waiver is granted which isn't a sure thing and the state establishes the employer-illegal immigrant network, the program would look for illegal immigrants who have been in Kansas a minimum of five years for the labor pool.
We support the states agricultural industry and all those who toil to make it work. We don't endorse exempting it from the rules.
If nothing else, the system Rodman proposes documents this country's convoluted positions on illegal immigrants.
To oversimplify, on one hand are those who support nothing but rounding up all illegal immigrants and sending them home, thinking that will solve a problem and free jobs for citizens and legal immigrants. On the other hand are those who realize illegal immigrants come to the United States in search of work and will continue to enter the country and risk death doing so as long as they think they can find work here.
That huge contradiction, however, is a federal issue and should be solved at that level, uniformly. Granting a waiver for a specific industry in one state only muddies the immigration waters and lets the federal government further ignore its responsibility to deal with the problem in one way or another.
The fact work is available is evidenced by the clamors from the agricultural industry and the fact Rodman and others think illegal immigrants who are experienced workers and have been in Kansas five years can be found in sufficient numbers to help.
Were writing here about the agricultural industry and its labor problem, but in addition to the Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Chamber of Commerce and some local chamber affiliates, supporters of Rodman's proposal also include building industry organizations.
And lest anyone forget, what Rodman, the organizations listed above and some legislators are supporting will be frowned upon by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has invested a lot of his time in drafting laws for states where officials in the round them up and send them home camp are in the majority.
It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that Kobach's beliefs and his current position play some role in the push to make some illegal immigrants not quite so illegal, and free to remain in the state and work openly.
Regardless, immigration is a federal issue to be handled at that level, not by a waiver or waivers to selected industries in selected states.
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