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HANFORD Unwilling to pronounce immigration reform dead in the House, a group of more than 600 business and farming groups has fired off a letter to House Speaker John Boehner calling on him to get the ball rolling.

Immigration reform is an essential element of a jobs agenda and economic growth, stated the letter, mailed last week and signed by 696 organizations and firms. It will add talent, innovation, investment, products, businesses, jobs and dynamism to our economy.

Signatories include the Visalia Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce and more than a dozen farming organizations in California.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, who supports comprehensive reform, praised the effort to get things moving.

The multi-industry letter sent to Speaker Boehner is further evidence of just how important the issue of immigration reform is, he said in a written statement. I have been vocal on my support for comprehensive immigration reform since coming to Washington and will continue to work every day to educate my colleagues in the House about the importance of immigration reform for my district, the families directly affected, and the entire country.

The letter is the latest attempt by reform supporters to get fractious House Republicans to take up the issue months after a bipartisan bill cleared the Senate. Hope was kindled anew on Jan. 23 when GOP House leaders endorsed a set of principles that included a path to legal status for immigrants already working in the U.S.

But a week later, Boehner appeared to backpedal, saying that House Republicans were unlikely to act because they didnt trust President Barack Obama to do a fair job implementing reform.

That left reform groups reeling. Last weeks letter appears to be a renewed push to make something happen in a touchy election year that makes it difficult to pitch sweeping compromises on any issue let alone one as divisive as immigration.

Agricultural business groups are adamantly behind the reform effort. Many of them, like Western United Dairymen, worked with the United Farm Workers to hammer out compromise provisions in the Senate bill.

Western United Dairyman, which counts nearly 1,000 California dairies as members, signed onto the letter, as did Paramount Farms, an agribusiness giant that employs hundreds of Kings County workers at nut processing facilities in Kern County. Other signatories include the Agricultural Council of California, the California Walnut Commission, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the Milk Producers Council.

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Ag-backed letter pushes immigration reform