Businesses Press House to Pass Immigration Provisions – WSJ.com

Among business interests, the lobbying effort started with campaigns by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other major groups to secure support in the Senate. The next stage likely will draw on smaller businesses, which will aim to drive home local concerns when they talk to lawmakers.

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association estimates that $140 million worth of onions, watermelons, cucumbers and other crops were left to rot in the fields in 2011 after restrictive immigration legislation was approved. The state is one of several to crack down on undocumented workers in recent years, moves that some businesses say made labor needs more severe.

Rumors that Georgia law enforcement had set up checkpoints on an interstate in 2011 hit the industry hard, said Charles Hall, the association’s executive director. “We had harvest crews—because they didn’t want the hassle, whether they were documented or undocumented—that were bypassing Georgia,” he said. The group is lobbying for an expansion of guest-worker programs, which would create a larger pool of legal workers for growers to tap.

via Businesses Press House to Pass Immigration Provisions – WSJ.com.