TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Over the past weeks and months, I have heard in meetings the chorus of valley farmers grow stronger in opposition to ill-advised immigration policies that could soon be considered by the House. Congress' failure to deal with our immigration problems is part of what's wrong with Washington. It is resulting in proposals that are not well thought out. If enacted, they would result in more problems for business, agriculture and the working people in our valley.

The House Judiciary Committee has recently approved legislation to require all employers to confirm the legal work status of all new employees through an online database known as E-Verify. Without comprehensive immigration reform, this misguided approach will not be successful.

Here in the valley and nationwide, foreign-born workers are critical to an affordable, home-grown food supply. The Labor Department has estimated that half or more of the 1.4 million field workers employed in the U.S. annually are undocumented.

Some make the false argument that in a time of high unemployment, domestic workers would step up to fill these jobs. From experience, this is simply not the case. Many states have unsuccessfully piloted programs to put the unemployed or even the incarcerated to work in our fields, and it has not worked.

Every day, 175,000 farm workers go to work in California's fields picking crops, such as our grapes, asparagus and tomatoes. Success of California agriculture depends on a large labor force since hand-harvesting is necessary for many of the crops grown here in the valley.

This spring, Georgia enacted legislation requiring all employers to check worker eligibility status using E-Verify. Farmers statewide reported a worker shortage of more than 40 percent. Without adequate labor, crops were left to rot in the fields. The weak harvest caused the loss of full-time jobs in processing and $391 million in agricultural profits.

Georgia is the poster-child for what could happen nationwide if legislation to make E-Verify mandatory were enacted.

In a time when we should be empowering job creators, this short-sighted proposal puts rhetoric above reality. Nearly 1 in 10 California jobs is tied to agriculture, and that number is even higher in the valley. Dislocations from E-Verify will go beyond our fields to processing, transportation, and exportation of agricultural products.

The valley is not the only place that our crops can thrive. A prolonged shortage of farm labor might cause producers to move their operations elsewhere and outsource America's food production.

Agriculture is not the only sector that will lose. Other sectors of the economy also depend on a workforce that would be targeted by this policy. Universal verification would cost small businesses in California more than $312 million annually, according to Bloomberg Government.

Our valley farmers and other small businesses should not bear the burden of our inability to enact a sensible immigration policy. All attempts to make E-Verify more appealing to agriculture have been empty gestures.

No one disagrees that worker eligibility should be verified, but E-Verify without an effective agriculture guest worker program in place would put an undue burden on businesses, especially valley farmers.

What we need now is less political posturing or grandstanding, and instead a bipartisan effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform. I will continue working with my colleagues to find a real solution to this problem.

-- Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, is one of four local elected officials writing about their work in The Californian. These are Costa's opinions, not necessarily The Californian's. Next Sunday: State Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter.