Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/117824
Labor In the late 1970s, near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, the Broetjes broke ground out of sagebrush and planted what would become a more than 5,000-acre orchard. Broetje Orchards provides an astounding array of benefits for workers: Housing, daycare for workers��� children, health care, a library, language training, home-ownership assistance, scholarships, counseling, basketball and other recreational programs, and a grocery store. A Broetje foundation called Vista Hermosa cofunds an elementary school with the Prescott School District. (Learn much more at the Broetje Orchard���s Web site, www.first fruits.com.) You could credit it to faith-based generosity, but that would be missing the other half of the Broetje story. If you want people to return to work each day, and the next year, you need to treat them well, she said. In her talk to the growers, Broetje offered no specific policy proposals. Instead, she spoke of the urgency for change in immigration law. She supports an organizing drive in Washington and across the nation among traditional advocates of immigration reform and people from faith communities, law enforcement, and business organizations. By enlisting people from what is regarded as the base of conservative Republicans, organizers see improved chances in the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, said immigration reform is the numberone issue for farm groups across the country. ���If we don���t have a reliable work force, we���ll be in trouble,��� he said. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 55 percent to 70 percent of agriculture workers are undocumented. Best opportunity Advocates of immigration reform say this year presents the best opportunity in many years for change. Public interest seems high. Voter groups wanting reform showed strength in the last national elections. The GOP is rethinking its engagement with Latino groups. President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators have called for a sweeping overhaul of immigration laws. To build momentum for legislation, the Growers League is partnering with the Seattle-based advocacy group OneAmerica for organizing support around a broad statement of reform principles called the Washington Compact (www.washingtoncompact.com). OneAmerica Executive Director Rich Stolz said organizers at the state and national levels are engaging members of such groups as the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Evangelical churches. Stolz encouraged growers to recruit people to the coalition and to personally lobby members of Congress. He said recruitment has gone well, but many more were needed. ���This is one issue where there is broad consensus for change,��� he said. The Washington Compact has been endorsed by one of Washington State���s leading business advocacy groups, the Association of Washington Business. ���In line with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AWB supports the Washington State Compact���s efforts to show that business, faith, and law enforcement leaders are solidly behind policy makers who want to change our system of immigration,��� wrote AWB President Don Brunell in a letter to the Growers League. Cheryl Broetje encouraged growers to see the immigration issue in the context of how we should define our nation. ���What kind of laws does the United States want to pledge its allegiance to? Which laws are just?��� she asked. ���We are a nation of laws. Laws are important. We have a right to defend out borders, absolutely. But we are also a nation about truth and grace, and hospitality and welcoming of strangers, because most of us in this room, our ancestors, were once strangers here.��� Cheryl Broetje is optimistic and determined, knowing that big change can come in mysterious ways. ��� www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER April 1, 2013 17