Ag Secretary Shows a Softer Side on Immigration in Talks With California Farmers
When Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was governor of Georgia, he enacted one of the harshest immigration laws in the nation.
The crackdown on undocumented immigrants worked so well to drive them from the state that Georgia farmers had nobody to pick their crops come harvest. Fruits and vegetables rotted in fields and farmers lost millions.
But on his first visit to California since joining the Trump administration, Perdue indicated a different approach to immigration.
In meetings with Central Valley congressmen and farmers, Perdue heard about growing difficulties finding enough workers to harvest crops. He said part of the answer is a new guestworker program, but that’s not enough.
Perdue pointed to Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) Agricultural Guestworker Act, saying, “It really doesn’t address the real needs of California farmers because many of these undocumented workers have been here for years and they’ve become part of the operation, sometimes farm managers, and they don’t really have a home to go back to right now.”
