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Vilsack: Immigration Reform Critical For Midwest

Comprehensive immigration reform is critical to sustaining the Midwest's role as a global leader in agriculture. That's the message from U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Vilsack told St. Louis Public Radio Monday that moving forward with the immigration reform plan recently passed by the U.S. Senate is key to retaining international talent that comes to this country to study in the plant sciences.

"Immigration reform focuses on making sure that the visa program for those scientists, those researchers, is doable," said Vilsack. "That it provides greater flexibility than the current system and gives us the capacity to attract more talent from around the world."

Vilsack also said the Senate plan expands the guest worker program which would make it easier to maintain a steady and legal supply of farm labor. Some Republican leaders in the GOP controlled U.S. House of Representatives have criticized the Senate's plan, saying in part that it is too vague when it comes to ensuring border security.

Tim Lloyd grew up north of Kansas City and holds a masters degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Prior to joining St. Louis Public Radio, he launched digital reporting efforts for Harvest Public Media, a Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded collaboration between Midwestern NPR member stations that focuses on agriculture and food issues. His stories have aired on a variety of stations and shows including Morning Edition, Marketplace, KCUR, KPR, IPR, NET, WFIU. He won regional Edward R Murrow Awards in 2013 for Writing, Hard News and was part of the reporting team that won for Continuing Coverage. In 2010 he received the national Debakey Journalism Award and in 2009 he won a Missouri Press Association award for Best News Feature.
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