Trump Administration's Immigration Policy Could Have Dire Effects in Clark County, Part 4
Thursday, March 23rd, 2017 -- 11:17 AM
-A priority in Washington D.C. could have a dire effect on farms, factories and other jobs here in Clark County.One of President Trump’s highest priorities is the deportation of undocumented immigrants. He has used a series of executive orders to chip away at the barriers to deportations and hire new law enforcement officials to spearhead the effort. Should he succeed, the effects will be wide reaching including right here in Clark County where a high population of undocumented workers fill positions on farms and in factories. I spoke with Melissa Kono, CNRED Agent, and Richard Halopka, Crops and Soil Agent, with the Clark County UW-Extension Office. They talked about some other consequences of mass deportation on our area.
Melissa: "One of the policy shortfalls that we have is, right now, workers who we would see typically working on dairy farms are not eligible for the H2A Visa, which is a seasonal work permit that typically migrant workers, like in the southern parts of the country for harvest season, they can get this permit and work, but it's temporary. The dairy season is year round. Weekends, holidays, everything. So, there's a different type of demand for workers and we just don't have a work permit that's appropriate for that. So, that's one policy change that we could address, so that we do have an adequate supply of workers that our local dairy farms are demanding."
Richard: "Another area that we could look at also is employer education. If we could get a liaison person, maybe people coming in just need that person to say 'this is how we get you legal.'"
Coming up on Friday, Melissa and Richard will end our interview with some final thoughts on what mass deportations could mean of the area.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=18669
Part 2: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=18677
Part 3: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=18685
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