RESUME
Name: Matt Edmundson
Title: Business manager
Firm: Arbor Valley Nursery, 15300 E. 132nd Ave., Brighton, CO 80601; (303) 654-1682; fax (303) 654-9946; matte@arborvalleynursery.com.

Do you have a response to this article? Send an e-mail to Todd Davis.

Matt Edmundson had a great opportunity this summer. Along with other Colorado business leaders, he met face to face with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to discuss labor and immigration issues. I discussed the meeting with Matt, as well as the labor situation in Colorado. Here's what he had to say:

Q. How did you get involved in the meeting in Colorado Springs with Secretary Gutierrez?

A. John Farner with the American Nursery & Landscape Association contacted me and invited me to participate. I'm the ANLA senator for Colorado and have traveled to Washington, D.C., this year to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform.

Q. What was the format of the meeting, and who attended?

A. The meeting was a roundtable discussion with representatives from the hotel, restaurant, cut flower, landscape, nursery and stone quarry industries as well as the Hispanic chamber of commerce and some industry association execs.

Secretary Gutierrez began the meeting with an overview of where we are in the process, his view and the president's position as well as what we need to be doing to further our cause locally and nationally. Each of the roundtable participants then told their stories, how immigration affects their businesses now and in the absence of a comprehensive solution.

Q. What was your impression of Gutierrez? Do you think he understands the industry's immigration situation?

A. I thought he was very attentive to all the participants as each spoke.

He replied with thoughtful insights and I felt that he did understand the challenges we face now. Going forward, he wanted to ensure any future programs really addressed the realities of particular industries effectively once implemented.

Q. What points were you able to convey during the meeting?

A. My role was to put forth many of the agriculture-specific issues related to immigration reform. This included the sensitivity of our products to seasonal demands and the need for labor to be responsive in that manner.

Before we sat down to begin the meeting, he noted the beauty of the grounds there at the Broadmoor Hotel as well as the enormous scope of the property. In my comments to him I reminded the group that all the beauty we enjoyed at the well-maintained property would not exist without the green industry.

Every plant on that property, save a few native Ponderosa pine, was first grown in a nursery or greenhouse, shipped across great distances, installed by a contractor and ultimately maintained by the staff there at the Broadmoor.

For every step in that process to be repeated in the future, a comprehensive solution to our immigration and labor problems needs to be resolved, and soon.

Q. Did he express interest in reforming the H-2A program?

A. I made sure to mention that agriculture needs a program that works at least as well as H-2B has worked for the service sector, eliminating much of the cost and streamlining processes to ensure the future survival and success of our industry.

Many of the other folks at the table have and do participate in the H-2B program and expressed how invaluable it has been to their survival. He did pick up on the need to address that ag. does need this program to be responsive to the appropriate timeliness for each producer.

Q. What has the immigration situation been like in the Denver area?

A. Of course, Colorado is a hotbed of immigration debate. The state Legislature has passed a few immigration-related bills that enact penalties on employers for 'knowingly' violating federal laws, including proper filing of paperwork. Penalties are stiff, including fines of $5,000 and up, as well as the loss of state tax rebates and state contracts.

There have been a couple of high-profile Homeland Security enforcements for alleged gross violators as well. Denver is a large draw for immigrant seasonal labor, with large seasonal demands in the ski, hotel, agriculture and landscape industries. Twenty-five percent of the H-B2 visas issued nationally come to Colorado with 5 percent of that going directly to the landscape industry here.

Q. How have Colorado business owners reacted to the state's new enforcement laws?

A. Colorado business feels largely ignored or taken for granted by our legislators on this issue.

We have a hotly contested governor's race, and many of the business owners I have spoken to are really struggling with whom to support, especially with regard to the immigration issue.

As far as I know, contractwise from contractors, there has been little if any change in the language to include the new state provisions. We also have not seen how these new provisions will be enforced and where the dollars will come from to do so.

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© 2006 Branch-Smith Publishing