DownWithTyranny!: Republicans For Illegal Immigrants

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach & Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman

When Roland first fell off the turnip truck that brought him from Maine to Los Angeles, we used to argue a lot about "illegal" immigrants. He had never been exposed to reality, and his view, like so many Americans', was that the Democrats want illegal immigrants while the Republicans want to protect America from them. He understands much better now how the corporatists behind the GOP establishment want cheap labor and-- slavery per se being now outlawed-- they thrive on foreign low-wage workers with no rights and no legal recourse.

Last week the Topeka Capital-Journal, hardly a bastion of left-wing propaganda, delved into the strangeness that is American immigration policy as it relates specifically to cheap manual labor. Kansas needs farmhands who will work hard for far less than the cost of living. Although the Republican "solution" is to create two societies, a high standard of living one for the one percent and a brutish low standard of living one for the 99%, it's taking too long, even for fanatic right-wing extremists and racists in Kansas, who after all have a harvest to get in now.

Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman gets an earful from farmers and ranchers struggling to fill job vacancies.

It is an economic calling, he said, worthy of thinking outside of the box. The cry of desperation from large dairies and feedlots is that loud.

"You've got to listen to your customers," said Rodman, a veteran corporate agriculture executive comfortable wearing a cowboy hat in the Statehouse.

He has traveled as secretary to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in an attempt to recruit people interested in agriculture careers in Kansas. That shows promise, but the payoff would be slow.

He also has looked to Washington, D.C. There is little optimism Congress will sort out the politics of immigration anytime soon, but Rodman met several times with officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about launching a pilot program in Kansas. The idea is to place employers and undocumented immigrants in a special network organized by the state. It would give rise to a legal, straightforward manner of organizing existing immigrant labor.

It won't happen, of course, without a nod from the federal government.

"I need a waiver," Rodman said. "It would be good for Kansas agriculture."

So far, Homeland Security hasn't signaled approval. Those officials haven't closed the door either.

As it turns out, Rodman isn't working solo on this front. A powerful coalition of business interests is preparing to tackle the issue in Topeka.

Details are expected to emerge this week about a bill establishing the outline of a state-managed worker program, in cooperation with the federal government, linking sponsor companies with illegal immigrants who have been in Kansas a minimum of five years.

Fees would be paid by these employees, as well as the employers, to make certain the state incurred no oversight cost. The plan is to reach out to experienced, committed workers with no criminal background. A likely candidate would be a person who entered Kansas on a visa that expired years ago.

Mike Beam, senior vice president of the Kansas Livestock Association, said the objective was to secure a reliable, regulated labor pool to the state's businesses. Despite the recession, there are counties in rural Kansas with unemployment rates half the state average.

"This will be very limited," Beam said. "It would be an agreement between the state of Kansas and Homeland Security."

Without a doubt, raising a certification program will trigger a boisterous debate on immigration policy. This topic is frequently driven by lawmakers intent on running illegal immigrants out of Kansas.

Working to sell lawmakers on reform bills in the House and Senate will be the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and local chamber affiliates, the Kansas Farm Bureau, building industry organizations, KLA and others.

This is the same coalition that contributed in the 2011 session to blocking a version of the controversial Arizona immigration measure compelling police officers to detain individuals they think might be undocumented. The coalition hopes to avoid the experience of Arizona and Alabama-- states that suffered economically following passage of tough laws targeting undocumented workers. Both states' laws invited litigation challenging the statutes.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach helped craft the immigration laws in both states. He has vowed to work in the 2012 session to obtain passage of a Kansas law requiring employers to deploy the federal E-Verify system to establish the credentials of new hires.

"If there were fewer jobs illegal aliens could obtain unlawfully and get away with it, fewer illegal aliens would come to Kansas," he said.

The outcome of the coalition's bill formalizing business relationships with illegal immigrants in Kansas is difficult to predict in an election year.

Chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees say they understand the economics of immigrant labor in rural Kansas.

Mud-covered boots of many workers in agriculture are worn by undocumented workers, said Rep. Larry Powell, a Garden City Republican and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

He said blanket removal of illegal immigrants from Kansas would undercut the state. That isn’t a secret to anyone keeping a finger on the state's economic pulse, he said. The cadre of workers is mostly Hispanic, but it includes a surprising number of German heritage.

"Most have been there more than 10 years,” Powell said. “It would be devastating to the Kansas economy to send them all home."

Sen. Mark Taddiken, a Clifton Republican and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the state's labor force needed to be solid to allow agriculture production to expand.

"They're having trouble finding people," Taddiken said. "The agricultural sector is looking for reliability."