McGavick calls for rebuilding U.S. foreign worker program

Farmers should have a steady and legal supply of foreign “guest workers” as the nation improves the security at its borders, Republican Senate hopeful Mike McGavick told a group of farmers Thursday in a campaign stop in Spangle.

In a wide-ranging discussion at the Harvester Restaurant, the Republican challenger appealed for high turnout in Eastern Washington counties as he called for a long-term plan for agriculture, separated himself from President Bush’s plans to revise Social Security and said English should be made the country’s official language.

Because of the threat of terrorism, U.S. borders need to be secured by “whatever it takes,” he told a round-table group of nine farmers and ranchers from Eastern and Central Washington.

But because some of them, and many others throughout the West, need immigrant labor to harvest their crops, the nation needs a guest worker program “rebuilt from the ground up,” he said.

Currently, federal law requires employers to check three forms of identification to verify that foreign workers are in the country legally. Mark Booker, a farmer from the Othello area, said he’s done that ever since the law was changed in 1986 but has no way of knowing if the IDs he checks are real.

The immigration laws should include a more secure identification system, and punishment for employers who hire undocumented workers, McGavick said.

“English should be the official language of the United States,” he said, adding that his opponent, Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell, voted against such a provision earlier in the year.

The farmers and ranchers at the table said they’d like to be free of the federal regulations that govern what they can and can’t do on their land, that have complicated formulas or exclude some areas of the state. But they can’t afford to give up some of the farm programs that supplement their income or provide a “safety net” against natural disasters or low prices.

Doing away with those protections is not realistic, McGavick agreed. But it is realistic for the federal government to start thinking long-term about the nation’s ability to feed itself as an element of “homeland security,” much the way President Bush talks about producing more domestic oil.

McGavick was critical of Bush, a fellow Republican, on Social Security and tried to counter suggestions by Democrats that the two have similar plans to privatize the national pension system.

Bush wants to privatize Social Security by letting younger workers invest part of their money on their own, he said. “I think Bush went too far. I don’t trust Wall Street.”

He does believe workers younger than 30 should be able to have personal accounts into which they can put some of their Social Security tax, as a way of assuring them that the program will be around when they hit 65. Those who are approaching retirement or already are receiving benefits should not have any changes, he added.

And while he talked about getting away from viewing Washington in an East-West split, McGavick did take a shot at the West Side on an issue sure to rile East Side farmers – the possible removal of federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers.

Although members of both parties in the state’s congressional delegation oppose that idea, Republican candidates campaigning in Eastern Washington often raise it in rural forums.

And one Western Washington group, the Whatcom County Democratic Party, has it as part of their platform, McGavick said.

On most topics, the farmers and McGavick found ready agreement. After the session, several said that’s not surprising – they come from areas that are overwhelmingly Republican.

That’s why they need to turn out in higher numbers than they did in 2004, when turnout in King County surpassed the eastern counties and Democrat Chris Gregoire squeaked by Republican Dino Rossi in the governor’s race, McGavick said.