Time to find common ground on immigration

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By Andy Grant November 18, 2011

I am the owner and operator of a large, northern Colorado-based organic family farm. For me, it is imperative that we solve the immigration issue. The American farming industry is completely dependent on migrant farm hands. Without immigrant workers, crops wouldn't be picked and packaged; food wouldn't make its way to supermarket shelves for our families to purchase at affordable prices. In fact, farming in the United States would largely disappear without immigrant workers.

A truly important event just took place in Salt Lake City on Oct. 26 - the Mountain West Summit: Forging a New Consensus on Immigrants and America. This summit gathered prominent business, faith, law enforcement and government leaders from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho together to think about pragmatic ways to solve our immigration challenges.

Although participants came from different states and perspectives, they were able to find common ground on the issue of immigration, by agreeing that the Mountain West's economy has been strengthened by hard-working immigrants who have provided essential labor in crucial sectors of our local economies.

In Colorado, for example, immigrants contribute to the critical workforce needed to harvest our crops, tend our