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How Immigration Reform Could Affect Employment And Guest Workers

Jude Joffe-Block
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Fronteras

Fronteras: What are the prospects for an overhaul to the nation's guest worker program? Arizona has plenty of experience using a mandatory employment verification system known as E-Verify; a look at how that program is working. Finally, a reaction on the current immigration reform proposals from two national organizations with very different ideas for a path forward.

E-Verify Lessons From Arizona

A strong employment verification system is one of the main planks included in the blueprint for immigration reform recently released by a bipartisan group of senators. The plan calls for a mandatory program that would prevent employers from hiring unauthorized immigrants, but making a system that works isn't easy.

In the next installment of our series, Broken Border: Immigration Reform in the Southwest, reporter Jude Joffe-Block explores the lessons learned when Arizona required employers use an existing program called E-Verify.

Farmers and Advocates Want Guest Worker Reform

Senators crafting the immigration reform bill said undocumented farm workers in the U.S. should get an expedited path to citizenship for their role in securing the nation's food supply. That's good news for workers and their bosses, who all say a labor shortage is forcing farms to let fruit fall to the ground.

Farmers want lawmakers to overhaul the nation's guest worker program, which they say currently makes it hard to bring in foreign workers when labor is scarce. For the last in our series Broken Border: Immigration Reform in the Southwest, Adrian Florido reports on the prospects.

Debating Immigration Reform: National Groups Weighing In

As lawmakers continue the process of hammering out immigration reform proposals, many experts are making their voices heard. We hear from two groups with two very different visions for how the country should overhaul its immigration system.

First is Ira Mehlman, who is with  Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a national nonprofit that works on immigration policy with the goal of stopping illegal immigration.

Second is Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, which says it works to ensure human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.