ON FEB. 12,2013, President Obama delivered his State of the Union address, followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio who gave the Republican response. They laid out very different visions and priorities, but one of their few areas of agreement was on the need to pass immigration reform. What a difference a year and an election can make! One year ago, mandatory E-Verify legislation was a real possibility, and Congress had no appetite to consider immigration issues beyond enforcement and "anti-amnesty" messages. USApple and other labor-intensive agricultural organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, began meeting to fight enforcement-only bills such as mandatory E-Verify and to draft a new agriculture labor proposal. The goal: a newpiece of legislation that all of agriculture could get behind. While we worked diligently to achieve this goal, realistically, everyone agreed it would likely be a long process to see a bill introduced and acted on.
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