<p>Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is urging the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to focus on violent crimes, rather than farms with chronic worker shortages.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> While California is experiencing a statewide labor shortage, the apprehension of legitimate agriculture employees and their employers is costing millions of dollars in unharvested produce, according to The Californian.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “Sen. Feinstein has been a champion of immigration reform and has worked hard to help farmers and ranchers find a solution to our labor shortages,” said Paul Wenger, California Farm Bureau Federation president. “We appreciate her willingness to ask [DHS] to concentrate on other enforcement priorities while we work to improve the system with a new agricultural immigration program.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> In early September, Feinstein wrote to Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss the troubling feedback she was receiving from farmers in California that ICE was continuing to use I-9 worksite audits against agricultural employers, according to a press release. This was an issue she first raised in a June 2012 letter to John Morton, former ICE director.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “Many farmers and growers in California informed me that their business and livelihood are at risk due to a shortage of legal harvesters, pickers, pruners, packers, and farm workers,” Feinstein wrote. “As you can imagine, with approximately 81,000 farms in California, I am very concerned that these audits will result in significant harm to the agricultural industry and the state’s overall economy.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Feinstein added: “I respectfully suggest that you adopt a policy of exercising prosecutorial discretion to defer enforcement against agricultural employers and workers, and concentrate instead on removing those who would and have harmed our society, rather than those who contribute to our vital agricultural economy and heritage, and the safe and high-quality food supply that benefits all Americans.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> The Agricultural Worker Program, a balanced agreement that was incorporated into the <I>Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act</i>, was co-authored by Senator Feinstein, along with Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), to address the lack of willing and available domestic agricultural workers. The <I>Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act</i> passed the Senate in June 2013.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> The Californian reports that there is currently no indication when the Republican-controlled House will take up the comprehensive bill passed by the Senate in June.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3ad9f59c-d459-42c0-9deb-3377c41c0855" target="_new"> Senator Feinstein to DHS </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20131002/BUSINESS/310020052/Feinstein-urges-ICE-back-off-farm-workers" target="_new"> The Californian </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
