VSP Update
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Testimony to Legislature on proposed IDs for undocumented dairy workers
Vermonters for Sustainable Population works to raise awareness about global and domestic population growth. We believe that U.S. population size is already unsustainable due to peak oil and resource extraction. Adding to the growth will only make this imbalance worse and will also significantly exacerbate the many other dilemmas we face as a nation. Among these challenges are high levels of unemployment, a decline in the quality of our public education, and health care costs increasing at a rate significantly in excess of overall inflation.
Having said that, the Board of Directors of Vermonters for Sustainable Population supports the proposed legislation allowing a state-level exemption that would give workers in our dairy industry the ability to work and live without fear of persecution and deportation. We do not consider this a contradiction because of the extremely small number of undocumented workers, a number I have heard is approximately 2,000, to which these provisions would apply. Furthermore, we appreciate the prominent role that dairy farming plays in Vermont’s economy, its rural character and its quality of life. And we are not blind to the changing economics of this industry, wherein bulk processors have been able to pay very low prices to farmers while still asking a high price when they distribute to the retail outlets. We hasten to emphasize, however, that such legislation must be carefully crafted and implemented to avoid the possibility that this exemption could be expanded to workers in fields other than the dairy industry, and any documents provided to these workers must not be allowed to retain their validity beyond a given worker’s conclusion of employment within the dairy industry.
I am proud to point out that the proposed legislation offers a far more reasoned and compassionate response to the problem of illegal immigration than those offered by a handful of other states, most notably Arizona and Alabama. While I can’t speak to the challenges faced by Arizona, in particular, given that state’s proximity to our porous southern border and the various additional burdens due to the much higher numbers of undocumented persons, I do believe that this proposed legislation offers another example of how Vermont has led the way in developing fair-minded and progressive solutions to problems which persistently elude effective resolution at the federal level. I am proud that our state was the first to offer a form of legalized unions between same-sex partners, and I see today’s debate as another groundbreaking movement wherein Vermont can lead the nation in addressing problems in ways that set aside the acrimony and intolerance evidenced in other states lacking Vermont’s common-sense, civility and capacity for neighborly deliberations.
I have prepared and distributed a written statement that more fully outlines our concerns about U.S. population growth and the way that immigration pushes this growth beyond sustainable limits. I would encourage all of the legislators present to read and consider that statement carefully whenever their work touches on the issues of population growth and its effects on our environment, our quality of life, and the future quality of life for Vermont’s children. Additional information can be found at our website, vspop.org, and please feel free to contact us at any time if you require more information about this issue.
I thank you for your time.
“Without memory, our existence would be barren and opaque,
like a prison cell into which no light penetrates; like a tomb which rejects the living.
If anything can, it is memory that will save humanity.”
Eli Wiesel, Noble Prize Laureate and Holocaust survivor