California and the San Joaquin Valley have a higher share of undocumented farmworkers than anywhere in the nation. Estimates are that 60 to 70 percent of CA farmworkers are undocumented.

In an unusual show of general consensus, advocates for both farmers and farm workers generally agree that the current immigration system simply does not work.

As a result, both growers and farmworkers advocates sat down and negotiated the agricultural provisions that are now part of the current immigration bull being discussed in Washington — and farm worker and immigrant advocates, as well as growers, are now pushing for its passage.

What’s wrong with the current system and how will the agricultural provisions in the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill address those problems?

We”l ask Prof. Philip Martin, Chair of the UC Comparative Immigration & Integration Program; Jason Resnick, General Counsel for the Western Growers Assn; and Diana Tellefson Torres, Executive Director of the UFW Foundation.

Radio commentary provided by Ryan Jacobsen, CEO  of the Fresno Farm Bureau; Rob Roy, President of Ventura County Ag Assn; and Mark Silverman, Director of Immigrant Policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: JULY 15, 2013

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