John Stulp, Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture, addressed the panel on the impact of immigration on the agricultural community. There is a tremendous need for seasonal workers, he said, in Colorado and other states. Colorado needs an estimated 9,000 seasonal workers annually. As fewer Americans work in the agricultural business, agribusiness reliance on migrant workers and foreign workers increases. Working with the Department of Labor, the Colorado Department of Agriculture developed a pilot program to bring seasonal workers to Colorado to try to meet the needs of farmers. The program was inspired by a similar program in Canada. The idea is to bring transparency to the agents that bring seasonal foreign workers to the state, to expedite visa paperwork, and to hold agents accountable for foreign workers to return to their home country after the season, thus relieving the local systems of the costs associated with a new population.
Watch John Stulp's presentation here.
Watch Jim Griesemer, Director of the University of Denver's Strategic Issues Panel on Immigration, interview Commissioner Stulp here.
No comments:
Post a Comment