Amid a bitter, ugly immigration debate, a moment of grace and common sense

Migrants on the U.S-Mexico border. It was a big week for immigration politics, but in Wisconsin a reality check shows farmers and immigrant workers have a lot in common | (Getty Images)

It was a big week for immigration politics. U.S. Senate Democrats queued up another vote on a doomed bipartisan border security bill, in an effort to expose Republican hypocrisy on the issue. Ahead of the floor vote, Wisconsin’s Republican Sen. Ron Johnson held a press conference Wednesday to denounce the bill, which had Republican backing — until presidential candidate Donald Trump told members of his party to oppose it so he can continue to use immigration as a cudgel.

“When you hear Democrats say they want to secure the border, what they really mean is they want to make it more efficient to encounter, process, and disperse illegal immigrants who do not have a valid asylum claim throughout America,” Johnson claimed at his press conference Wednesday. “That’s what this bill does.”

But back when it seemed likely to pass, immigrant rights advocates were alarmed by the border security bill, crafted after months of negotiations among a bipartisan group of legislators including Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema and Oklahoma Republican James Lankford. Among the red flags were provisions that expedite deportations, make it harder to qualify for asylum and end the practice of allowing people to stay in the U.S. while they await asylum proceedings. It also adds 5,000 new asylum officers to speed up claims and it beefs up the Border Patrol (whose union backed the bill) and targets money laundering and fentanyl traffickers.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin held her own press conference Wednesday to speak out in favor of the bill, which she called “a strong measure… that curbs the flow of fentanyl from coming across our border and expedites the asylum process and boosts border security.”

Focusing specifically on overdose deaths in Wisconsin, Baldwin called the bill “desperately needed.” It’s not “perfect,” Baldwin added, saying she was sad about the omission of protections for Dreamers — children born outside the U.S. who came here when they were young and know no other home. But, she said to Senate colleagues, “Let’s do something together right now to secure our border to stop the flow of fentanyl, to fix our broken immigration system and to make a real difference for Americans and Wisconsinites.”

Making a real difference is not what the vote on this bill is all about, however. Border security is a huge hot button in the 2024 election, courtesy of Trump’s demagoguery. Candidates in each of the two major parties will keep tossing it back and forth until November. 

Republicans, who got pretty much everything they wanted in the border security compromise, have no intention of voting for it. They’d rather blame President Joe Biden for a broken immigration system that long predates his term in office. Democrats know the bill is going nowhere and are using it to show that Republicans aren’t serious. 

Meanwhile, back in reality, the same undocumented immigrants who are supposedly such a scourge are propping up the U.S. economy. In Wisconsin, they make up 70% of dairy workers. 

Last weekend, UW Eau Claire honored dairy farmer John Rosenow, who is an outspoken advocate for the largely Mexican workforce his industry depends on.

Because the U.S. offers seasonal visas for agricultural work, but not for the year-round work performed on dairy farms, a majority of workers on Wisconsin dairy farms are undocumented.

Rosenow is the rare farmer who is willing to talk openly about this reality. 

“John’s life-guiding philosophy is advocating for those who do not have a voice that is heard here, sharing stories with others and connecting people to one another,” the UW Eau Claire Alumni Association awards committee wrote. “He keeps an open mind. He’s quiet, soft-spoken, and a man who genuinely listens to opposing views, ponders them as needed, and ultimately is not afraid to evolve as a result if he finds worth in those viewpoints.”

Rosenow helped create programs in rural Wisconsin that foster cultural understanding, including Bridges/Puentes, a nonprofit organization that takes dairy farmers to Mexico once a year to visit the families of their workers and see the homes and businesses they are building with the money they earn milking cows. He helped launch a program at UW-Eau Claire that next year will begin placing students on his farm so they get to know immigrant workers. He was also involved in a program that started a mobile clinic staffed by nursing students to serve farm workers. 

In accepting his award at Eau Claire, Rosenow focused his remarks on an employee named Severo. 

“Severo came to our farm 25 years ago and started milking cows. He’ll be at the farm tomorrow at 2 a.m. to do it again,” Rosenow said. Severo came to the U.S. because “he realized that if he wanted his young family of four boys and three girls to enjoy a life out of poverty, he had to do something drastic. … For the past 25 years, he has lifted his family out of extreme poverty by sending most of what he earned on my farm back to his family.” 

Severo’s sons, Juan, Federico and Germán Gildo have all worked on Rosenow’s farm as well, and Severo has built three houses for his family in Mexico with the money he earned milking cows.

“I tell this story tonight to offer you a representative of the majority of Mexicans I have had the privilege of working with,” Rosenow said. “I consider them much more deserving of this award than I am.” 

“It’s beyond the politics,” Rosenow added when I reached him on the phone. “It’s just human beings trying to make a living.”

“In a politically charged arena of immigration discussion, I try to explain … how much we have in common with others from a different part of the world,” Rosenow told the awards committee. 

What a breath of fresh air.

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