Written by Bruce Goldstein
Thursday, 25 June 2009 08:23
On Wednesday, Sen. Schumer spoke to immigration advocates, including Farmworker Justice's Adrienne DerVartanian, about his plans, as Chair of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform. Schumer has been a supporter of AgJOBS and in fact was part of the trio of lawmakers in 1986 who negotiated the special agricultural worker ("SAW") legalization program in that year's immigration legislation, which legalized 1.1 million formerly undocumented farmworkers. Today, Thursday, President Obama meets with key members of Congress regarding immigration policy. Best guesses are that Congress can't put immigration legislation on its schedule for floor debate until very late in 2009 or early 2010, and that it must be done by early 2010 to avoid election-year politics. A lot of preparatory work will happen over the next several months.
