Farm column skirts immigration reality
The “Blue Card” amnesty program for illegal alien farm workers that Big Agriculture lobbyist Bryan Tolar is pushing (“Farm labor shortage costly to state,” Opinion, June 18) would eventually make it easier for beneficiaries to move one step closer to obtaining American citizenship — the same end result as the failed 1986 amnesty.
Work requirements include seven years of agricultural employment, rather like 21st century indentured servitude under the Ag bosses for whom Tolar works. After that term, lessons learned from the Ag amnesty of 1986 show us that the former illegals, now on a path to U.S. citizenship, migrate to work in an air-conditioned warehouse and leave the miserable field work — and the grower’s preset wages — to the next wave of black-market labor. Blaming a 2011 worker shortage for profit losses in his sales pitch, Tolar omitted any mention of the damaging drought that produced a crop shortage that year.
It is clear the agriculture masters are unwilling to pay wages for which Americans will work. Updating and streamlining the existing H2A agriculture visa — along with real immigration and employment enforcement, so that the Ag industry would be forced to use genuinely temporary, legal and protected foreign workers — is the solution the powerful agriculture lobby works to ensure never happens. So far, they have nothing to worry about on that one.
D.A. KING, MARIETTA
Iraq could learn tactics from Cobb
What Iraq needs: A strong central leader who can keep the sectarians under control with intimidation and full use of his power (and then some). Wait, didn’t Iraq have that before the U.S. invaded over a decade ago — over 100,000 innocent lives and billions of dollars ago? We have had a way of forcing our will on certain other countries. We’ve got just the man for the job in Iraq, and he’s right here in metro Atlanta: Cobb County Chairman Tim Lee.
Any man who can shove a Major League Baseball team down a major county’s throat, and then have the gall to write an article for the largest newspaper in the state claiming his secretive actions were necessary for the greater good of all (some of whom just don’t get it), has the necessary tools. I’ll offer to pay Tim’s one-way airfare. Let’s get him on the next flight to Baghdad.
ALLEN BUCKLEY, ATLANTA
Honor wounded vets with special holiday
The self-esteem of wounded veterans would be boosted by a special national holiday in recognition of their sacrifice. Yes, we have Memorial Day, which remembers soldiers lost in war. We have Veterans Day, which recognizes all veterans. But Wounded Warrior Day would go a long way in showing the nation’s appreciation for the sacrifices made by those who return from our wars with major injuries. Putting this kind of spotlight on our wounded would help with much-needed improvements in our VA hospitals.
RICHARD KENYADA, SMYRNA
