While Congress is on recess for the week, many American businesses have no such let up, and some are waiting on Washington to act on long-simmering policy issues beyond health care and job-creation. The dairy industry is one example; one of its major policy concerns is immigration reform.
 
The cost of producing milk is mostly up, the wholesale price of milk is mostly down, and dairy producers are feeling the squeeze in between. “Immigrant labor has always supported the lower end of the economy but yet we have been unwilling as a nation to properly calibrate our system to allow it to happen,” says Craig Regelbrugge, a lobbyist who champions immigration reform.

“From the industry perspective, it’s getting worse. We need to address this and we should have addressed this yesterday,” says Jaime Castaneda of the National Milk Producers Federation. Last year federal immigration enforcement agents began combing through the books of thousands of businesses nationwide. Castaneda argues that a crackdown doesn’t make sense when farmers don’t have a legal alternative that enables the business to pencil out.    
 
From a legislative perspective, however, it’s off Congress’ radar today, and immigration policy is one of many topics fighting for priority tomorrow. Lawmakers quarrel over how to enact a guest worker program or at least fix the current visa system to better suit farmer needs. “We are in search of a solution that is fair to U.S. employers, fair to U.S. workers and fair to immigrant workers,” says Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee. Her Republican colleague Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) says he isn’t forgetting about dairy farmers back home, but cracking down on illegal immigration comes first.
 
“The American public is opposed to granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. And no matter how they try to spin it by calling it comprehensive immigration reform, earned legalization, whatever – the public gets what it really is.”
 
What it is, is out of the limelight for now. But it’s there. Like that thing in a cold glass of milk that can make it turn sour before you know it.