I recently received a news letter from the Joseph Phelps Winery which spoke to the issue of immigration in a tone supportive of the people who pick their grapes and addressing the need for creating a path toward citizenship. In my travels to wine country -- GeorgePauls...

Nick visits Cafe Spice Namaste.

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is now singing a different tune after meeting with President Busch last week. The group says it now supports the immigration reform bill with hopes of tweaking certain provisions to further help the restaurant industry. The proposal is expected to have some problems in the House of Representatives, but supporters are hoping it will get passed...

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to revive the controversial immigration bill Thursday, June 14 after pulling it earlier this month. The bill will likely reappear before the Fourth of July recess, says several sources, during which the Senate will take a look at approximately 22 amendments divided between the two parties. The NRA (National Restaurant Association) says...

The Bush administration strongly opposed a bipartisan amendment by Senators Charles Grassley and Barack Obama to make the immigration bill easier on employers, reports the AP. The amendment would make a new program to stop businesses from hiring illegal workers less burdensome, which Homeland ... . The Senate is currently sifting through two dozen other amendments to the Immigration Reform bill...

While some in the restaurant industry fear the immigration proposal could make hiring much more difficult, the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) is asking the U.S. Senate to support the reform. If passed, CAWG believes SB 1348 would give a boost to agriculture by providing a “practical” guest worker program and a way for farm workers to become legal. The bill would also...

Bad news today for California winegrape growers. President Bush’s immigration bill died yesterday in the Senate on a procedural vote. Only 45 of the necessary two-thirds of the senators voted to proceed, and 50 were opposed. The stalemate ends, at least for now, months of bipartisan negotiations between the White House and a key group of senators. The legislation would have legalized...

Immigration reform is too important to agriculture for leaders to ignore or to assume the failure of the U.S. Senate once again to bring a compromise bill up for a vote will be the last gasp for those supporting a legislative fix...

The California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) today called on the United State Senate to support comprehensive immigration reform. “Immigration reform is a tough issue but our immigration system is broken and the compromise proposal before the Senate is an important step towards fixing ... Coalition for Immigration Reform and a long-time advocate of AgJOBS legislation,” said Fry. “AgJOBS...

A new proposal to change existing immigration rules could have a noticeable effect on the industry. The bipartisan bill would require employers to verify electronically the legality of new employees, while raising the penalty for hiring illegal immigrants. According to NRN, the government’s electronic verification program “is badly flawed” The proposal would also create a point system...