Don’t Close Ins, Fix It, Say Mid-Columbia Residents Plan To Share Duties Among 3 Agencies Would Complicate Procedures, They Say

Mid-Columbia farmers and law enforcement officers take a dim view of a proposal to disband the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

As a Pasco farmer who criticizes the federal Border Patrol for harassing mid-Columbia migrant workers, Robert Whitelatch isn’t always the federal agency’s biggest fan.

But Whitelatch and a number of Mid-Columbia farmers who take more than a passing interest in immigration policies can’t understand how disbanding the agency would improve its performance.

“I just don’t see the advantages,” said Whitelatch, owner of RC Farms, 20 miles north of Pasco.

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform this week recommended splitting up the duties of the INS among the Labor, State and Justice departments.

But Whitelatch and others said changes are needed in how the INS carries out its mission, rather than shifting those duties to other agencies.

Whitelatch, who hires about 250 migrant workers annually to work in his fields, said he’s particularly concerned about a proposal to have the Labor Department regulate foreign workers.

Whitelatch and others support a “guest worker” program that would allow foreign workers into the United States on a temporary basis.

“The problem for the agriculture community is that the whole guest program doesn’t exist … because the Labor Department has fought it tooth and nail,” Whitelatch said.

“Now, to turn it over to the Labor Department is like putting the fox in the hen house.”

Others worry that dividing immigration issues among three agencies could leave employers with a blizzard of paperwork.

“If they decide to split them up, you will have more people wondering where to go to get information,” said Julie Murray, assistant director of government relations for the Washington State Farm Bureau in Olympia.

“When someone has an immigration issue, I can say the INS are the ones to deal with,” she said. Under the proposal to parcel out INS activities, three or four agencies could be involved, she said.

Franklin County Undersheriff Kevin Carle voices strong support of INS agents.

“It would be a shame if we didn’t have them,” Carle said. “They are definitely needed here. I think a lot of the illegal aliens who are shipped out are the criminal element, and the crime rate has dropped. That’s the way I want to keep it.”