Immigration and the Economy

The NYT writes about the economic consequences of Congress' failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.  In California and other states, growers cannot find enough migrant workers to harvest their crops and fruit is literally rotting on the trees.  The political consequences for national Republicans are just as pungent:

As they sum up this season’s losses, estimated to be at least $10 million for California pear farmers immigration legislation that would have addressed the shortage by authorizing a guest-worker program for agriculture. Many growers, a dependably Republican group, said they felt betrayed.

This is an important reminder that Republican inaction on this issue impacts all of us, not just immigrants, and posturing on border security will not fix the problem.  Read more on NDN's reaction to the Republican decision to give up on immigration reform here