Transcript

Oralia Mercado & Alan Simpson Exchange

Simpson
Well, my father was born in Jackson, all the streets were named after the family but they sold it off for $25 an acre long, long ago and they shouldn't have done that. Jackson is a town where some people have everything and some people have nothing, and they are not doing enough for that migrant population so here I was chairman of the sub-committee on immigration refugee policy and they thought since I was in power, there would never be a raid in Jackson. I never paid any attention to what the INS was doing or ever triggered a raid or tried to stop a raid. I said that that's not my business, I'm a legislator. Well, when they went in there, I mean I got the nastiest letters you've ever seen from people who have lots of bucks. They said, "Boy, this is rotten, what a trick and you were the Chairman, you had the power, you were the assistant leader of the Senate, why didn't you stop it?." I said I didn't have anything to do with it. Then they went to Barney's Well Service in Rollins and over 33 employees, 25 of them were illegal and then they said I should have stopped that, and I said, I'm not in that. But you are not making the distinction, when somebody comes to the United States illegally, they have no protections at all. I've visited with President Lopez Porteo, he said when our people come there to work and they need that and a better life, just be sure that they are treated fairly and humanely and kindly. I said, how do you that when they are there illegally. They are going to be exploited, they are going to be expendable, I mean come on, so don't talk about immigrants and illegals in the same breath, they are totally different, totally different and they will always be abused, they will be used and it's happening all over America. The people who don't want to have legalization because you know, you could do the Wall Street journal theory of economics which is hire them for a buck and a half and when payday comes, call the INS and have them hauled away and save the payroll. Now that is called, open-border, bone-headed thinking, that's what I call it anyway. But I have always whacked on the media, that little squib of Cody, Wyoming, that's a talk show that gets the goofiest people on earth on that show. It's called "Speak Your Piece" and to pull a little segment off there about some racist or bigot is unfair to my community, that is Cody, WY and we have outreach of all types in Cody, WY, so to pull that little snagger off there just irritates my butt.

Host
I told you we'd add to your book . . .

Simpson
Well of course the media's done that to me regularly. I always say the First Amendment belongs to me too, what do you think of that?

Mercado
I am from Wyoming and I have seen lots of changes. Well, in the program that I have, we do bring legal workers to come to the United States to work in agriculture, we've been doing that 14 years and I know that there are other segments in Wyoming that would like to bring workers where there are shortage. There is definitely a shortage of US workers either because of economics or because those are the jobs that US workers don't want to do anymore. We are encouraging all of our kids to go to college, and they are taking on other jobs and doing other things like going to work for different companies, in internship jobs, and so even our summer kids are not going to Jackson to work but I disagree that that was just a short segment because of it being one of those little radio stations in Cody, WY because as I understood the full picture in Cody, there were people in the community who were concerned and had xenophobic ideas about Latinos coming there to work and even the individual who was hired to do all the legal paperwork, the visas, the petitions, the labor certifications, I understood his life was threatened and he quit the job, so then Cody lost out on their ability to fill the positions in the motels by bring H2B workers. That was the story that I heard.

Simpson
I lived there so I don't believe that I take it to heart.

Mercado
The media again reported it.

Simpson
This is a very compassionate piece we are doing here tonight and everything up on the screen is pretty potent emotionally, pretty powerful stuff, but there is another side and like I will say "button your shirt, your heart fell out." There is an important part to remember that there are other people who live in a community like that and I've never heard of anything like that. Powell, Wyoming is filled with Hispanic people, and Ralston, Cody . . .

Mercado
Right, but I do agree with you that the H2A and H2B programs are . . . those programs do provide protection for those workers who are coming here to work. I always say that the ranchers who work through our association are the more progressive ranchers because they do go through an expense to do the labor certifications, petitions and pay us our fee so that they can bring a legal workforce to work for them. But we still have the unfortunate attitude by some, and I am not going to say the whole ranching community but some ranchers, where there is still exploitation regardless of whether or not there are regulations that regulate them. I do not feel that the Federal Government does enough to protect those workers even when there is enforcement. I do agree that the workers who come here undocumented or without paperwork are those going to be exploited first, but having the law there doesn't necessarily save them from exploitation by employers or ranchers or . . .

Simpson
I put together the H2A worker program, which is a legal way to get people to come so that they have proper sanitation, proper facilities. In Powell we have toilets in the field. When I was a kid, they didn't have anything in the fields, they have schools in Lovell, WY for the children, that's all over the county of Park where we have the largest population of Hispanics in any county in Wyoming.

Mercado
The migrants seasonal farm worker school though existed before ECRA. I only know because in the 1960's I worked in the Big Horn Basin area working with migrant schools in that area, so I know that the migrant schools existed long before immigration reform.

Simpson
Pretty good, not bad.

Mercado
Right. But because of the Office of Economic Opportunity, not ECRA, that those schools existed.