Deportations hit home

This story from The New York Times describes the plight of one immigrant family fighting deportation. From the story:

Last year on May 1, hoping to influence Congress to adopt legislation making illegal immigrants legal, hundreds of thousands of immigrants held marches and work stoppages across the country. This May 1 there will be another round of rallies and marches, but this time immigrants will also be protesting a surge in deportations.
The events are expected to be much smaller than a year ago, organizers said, as stepped-up enforcement by the authorities has made illegal immigrants wary of protesting in public and more doubtful that Congress will soon act to give them a chance at legalization.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, facing intense political pressure to toughen enforcement, removed 221,664 illegal immigrants from the country over the last year, an increase of more than 37,000 — about 20 percent — over the year before, according to the agency’s tally.
While President Bush and many Democrats have called for a path to legalize some 12 million illegal immigrants, a significant number of Republicans in Congress reject the plan because they view it as amnesty for lawbreakers. They advocate a broader campaign of deportations that would expel many illegal immigrants and, they say, drive millions more to give up and go home.

TK: That some Republicans advocate a plan to deport illegal immigrants and potentially divide families shows that this nation seemingly must endure more pain before coming to grips with reform. The planned big push on Capitol Hill by farmers and other industries in mid-May may well be the last, best hope for comprehensive immigration reform before 2009 or later.

And Indian irradiated mangoes again

Just got this over the wire:


SECRETARY JOHANNS TO PARTICIPATE IN RECEIVING SHIPMENT OF INDIAN MANGOS
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 - Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns will participate with U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab and Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen in receiving the first shipment of Indian mangos.
WHO: Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab
Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen
WHAT: Photo opportunity receiving the shipment of Indian mangos
WHEN: Tuesday, May 1, 2007
2:45 p.m. EDT


TK: This Washington photo shoot indicates that this indeed is a big deal, particularly for Indian mango exporters.

Why not marketing order?

I visited with Tom Bellamore, senior vice president and corporate counsel of the California Avocado Commission, Irvine, this afternoon. We had a pretty lengthy chat about the legislation on Capitol Hill that would impose California's state minimum maturity standards on imported fruit. I asked, why not use a federal marketing order to get this done? Bellamore said the California industry didn't necessarily want the bureaucratic and administrative trappings of a marketing order, and said the concept of minimum maturity standards had been discussed in joint meetings with Chilean and Mexican interests.

Later - the reaction of the Chilean industry.

H.R. 2051

From the House avocado bill H.R. 2051


110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2051
To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to provide for the application of mandatory minimum maturity standards applicable to all domestic and imported Hass avocados.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 26, 2007
Mrs. CAPPS (for herself, Mr. ISSA, Mr. FARR, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. FILNER, Mr. MCCARTHY of California, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, and Mr. HUNTER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to provide for the application of mandatory minimum maturity standards applicable to all domestic and imported Hass avocados.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Hass Avocado Quality Assurance Act of 2007'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY.
(a) Findings- Congress finds the following:
(1) Hass avocados are an integral food source in the United States that are a valuable and healthy part of the human diet and are enjoyed by millions of persons every year for a multitude of everyday and special occasions.
(2) Hass avocados are a significant tree fruit crop grown by many individual producers both domestically and abroad.
(3) Hass avocados move in interstate and foreign commerce and Hass avocados that do not move in interstate or foreign channels of commerce but only in intrastate commerce directly affect interstate commerce of Hass avocados.
(4) The maintenance and expansion of markets in existence on the date of enactment of this Act, and the development of new or improved markets or uses for Hass avocados, are needed to preserve and strengthen the economic viability of the domestic Hass avocado industry for the benefit of producers, importers, and other persons associated with the producing, importing, marketing, processing, and consuming of Hass avocados.
(5) The marketing of immature Hass avocados adversely affects demand for all Hass avocados because immature avocados are unpalatable and unfit for human consumption and, when marketed, result in dissatisfied customers who will cease purchasing Hass avocados.
(6) There is no better method of ensuring the maturity of Hass avocados than through requiring that Hass avocados meet an established mandatory minimum maturity standard, as measured by percentage of dry matter.
(7) The application of consistent and mandatory minimum maturity standards for all Hass avocados is necessary for the maintenance, expansion, and development of markets for Hass avocados.
(b) Purpose- It is the purpose of this Act to set forth certain mandatory quality standards in the form of mandatory minimum maturity requirements for all Hass avocados, and to provide the Secretary with the authority necessary to ensure that such standards are met, with the intention of--
(1) strengthening the position of the Hass avocado industry in the domestic marketplace; and
(2) maintaining, developing and expanding markets and uses for Hass avocados.
SEC. 3. MATURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR HASS AVOCADOS.
Subtitle A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`SEC. 209. MATURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR HASS AVOCADOS.
`(a) In General- Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Hass Avocado Quality Assurance Act of 2007, the Secretary of Agriculture shall issue final regulations to ensure that all Hass avocados sold to consumers in the United States meet the minimum maturity standards (as measured by percentage of dry matter) for sale to a consumer of the State of California, as required by regulations issued pursuant to chapter 9 of division 17 of the California Food and Agricultural Code or any succeeding provision of California law governing the minimum maturity standards of Hass avocados for sale to a consumer.
`(b) Exceptions- Subsection (a) and the regulations issued pursuant to subsection (a) shall not apply to Hass avocados--
`(1) intended for consumption by charitable institutions;
`(2) intended for distribution by relief agencies;
`(3) intended for commercial processing into products; or
`(4) that the Secretary determines should not be subject to such subsection or such regulations.
`(c) Use of Existing Inspectors- The Secretary shall, to the greatest extent practicable, use inspectors that inspect avocados for compliance with section 8e of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608e-1), reenacted with amendments by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, to conduct inspections under this section.
`(d) Penalties-
`(1) DIVERSION- The Secretary may divert, export, or repack and reinspect any Hass avocados that do not meet the requirements of this section or the regulations issued pursuant to this section.
`(2) CIVIL PENALTIES- The Secretary may require any person who violates this section or the regulations issued pursuant to this section to--
`(A) forfeit to the United States a sum equal to the value of the commodity at the time of violation, which forfeiture shall be recoverable in a civil suit bought in the name of the United States; or
`(B) on conviction, be fined not less than $50 or more than $5,000 for each violation.
`(e) Fees- The Secretary may prescribe and collect fees to cover the costs of providing for the inspection of Hass avocados under this section. All fees and penalties collected shall be credited to the accounts that incur such costs and shall remain available until expended without fiscal year limitation.
`(f) Authorization of Appropriations- There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.'.
SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act or the amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this Act and the amendment made by this Act, and the application of such provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other circumstances, shall not be affected by such invalidation.



TK: Points 5 and 6 may be the trouble spots.
5) The marketing of immature Hass avocados adversely affects demand for all Hass avocados because immature avocados are unpalatable and unfit for human consumption and, when marketed, result in dissatisfied customers who will cease purchasing Hass avocados.
(6) There is no better method of ensuring the maturity of Hass avocados than through requiring that Hass avocados meet an established mandatory minimum maturity standard, as measured by percentage of dry matter.

TK: Do we know from evidence that immature avocados are creating dissatisfied customers? Is there "no better method" of ensuring maturity of hass fruit than by requiring imported fruit meets California's standard? I'm sure those are two points of divergence between California growers and foreign competitors.

Immigration headlines

Immigration reform is going to be a hot topic in May. Here are today's headlines...




Bush pushes immigration reform in speech to Miami grads

Florida senator hasn't given up on immigration reform

Hundreds march for immigration reform in Houston

Analysts: Tough political road for immigration reform