COLORADO BILL TO IMPORT FARM WORKERS FROM MEXICO

Bruce gave bill a needed kick

By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 04/22/2008 08:25:42 PM MDT


Congratulations to the Colorado House of Representatives for not letting an ugly display by Rep. Douglas Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, derail a bill that takes an important first step toward reducing illegal immigration while helping Colorado farmers recruit legal seasonal workers.

If anything, Bruce's tirade on Monday seemed to win votes for House Bill 1325, by Reps. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, Ray Rose, R-Montrose, and Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo. The bill sailed through the House by a resounding 46-18 on final reading Tuesday. It now heads to the Senate.

HB 1325 doesn't create a new channel for immigration at all. Instead, it allows the state to slash red tape and speed the hiring of seasonal workers under the existing federal H-2A visa process. The federal agencies handling this program for seasonal workers are so understaffed that it takes them up to 168 days to process applications. Such delays spell ruin for Colorado farmers, whose crops may rot in the fields while the federal bureaucracy shuffles papers. Such waste deprives Colorado consumers of fresh, locally grown produce.

HB 1325 would cut through that red tape by creating a pilot program to process such visas in 60 days or less. Entirely funded by fees paid by employers, the program would also screen foreign workers for both criminal records and health problems before allowing them into the U.S. The program would expedite 1,000 seasonal workers the first year and 1,000 more each year until it reaches 5,000.

This is the program, specifically limited to legal temporary workers, that Bruce assailed with his infamous remark: "We don't need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in the state of Colorado."

Actually, if Bruce ever tried his hand at farm work, he'd find that picking those delicious Western Slope apples and peaches isn't just hard work — it's skilled labor that ranks with bricklaying, carpentry and other crafts learned mostly by on-the-job training.

HB 1325 has strong safeguards to ensure that workers don't overstay their visas, including ordering employers to withhold 20 percent of seasonal workers wages to be paid when they return to their home countries. In fact, most of the workers are eager to return to their homes and families once the seasonal work has ended.
House leaders have decided not to sanction Bruce, who was censured in January for kicking a photographer, for his latest misdeed. That decision is wise. Bruce's eructations, however ugly, are protected by the First Amendment.

Besides, Bruce, an unelected legislator who was merely appointed to fill a vacancy, already has been dumped to the second line in a Republican primary in his House District 15, where he faces citizen soldier and Iraq war veteran Mark Waller. We'll trust the voters to give Bruce his comeuppance.