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Area members of the Texas Farmers' Bureau were in Washington last week to speak on behalf of immigration reform.

Bureau State Director Russell Boening, who runs a dairy farm just south of San Antonio, said recent shortages in labor have forced his hand.

I need Congress to act to fix the broken immigration system the sooner, the better, Boening said at the nation's capital. After years of avoiding the issue, some (politicians) in Congress now say they support reform just not this year. That might make sense politically, but it's disastrous for my business."

While proposed legislation such as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act has been on the national radar the last few years, no major national or Texas policy changes have since been made been made on an issue that has dominated political debate for much of the last decade, according to farm bureau officials.

In a phone interview later that day, Boening explained that increased deportations, the draw of oil jobs from Eagle Ford and the fluctuations of the farming industry have all contributed to a labor shortage of immigrant workers living in south San Antonio and surrounding counties such as Atascosa and Wilson.

Farmers employ many people, legal immigrants and those with work visas, who do jobs (other) Americans can't or don't want to do, the Floresville dairy farmer said. So for us, immigration reform has to fix things like border security, but it also has to (ensure) programs like the work visa remain protected.

Boening said he's talked with politicians at all levels of government about immigration reform, and while the talks have been mostly positive, no one has committed to anything substantial.

Everybody tells me, 'we need to do something', Boening noted. But what does that mean? When are we going to do it? How far are we going to go?

U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who represents part of San Antonio, said in a statement that he also supports the work visa program.

I have had many conversations with agriculture groups in Texas, including the Farm Bureau, about reforming our broken immigration system to include a guest worker plan for farm workers, Cuellar wrote. As a state that relies heavily on agriculture, Texas would benefit greatly from legislative reform that creates a stable visa system for farm workers.

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Texas Farm Bureau pushes immigration reform in Washington