Sometimes facts have an uncomfortable way of interfering with our conclusions, and so it is with the issue of border security and immigration reform. This issue is like a large ball of string, with many loose ends ready to be pulled. While I can’t deal with all of it in the space of a few words, I can dispel one of the false notions floating around — that this country does not require foreign sources of workers. The fact is we do. The fact is our economy cannot grow without them.

The Department of Labor and other sources report that our native born workforce is aging, increasingly educated and has alternatives available other than jobs requiring low entry level skills. At the same time, the majority of jobs expected to have the largest needs in the coming years fall precisely in this category. Neither technology nor increases in productivity are going to appreciably change the situation.

United States unemployment levels are at 4 percent to 5 percent. This is described as nearly full employment, and our birth rate is not likely to contribute to our growing needs for low entry-level jobs.

Again, the facts may interfere with your conclusions, but a brutal fact is either we import our labor or we will be exporting our businesses. We can discuss the related consequences of this required labor infusion, and there are many, but denying the reality won’t change it. I would further suggest we are much better off understanding economic reality, so we won’t be surprised by the consequences of tomorrow that result from our actions of today.

You might respond by saying, “Just pay more.” Certainly any given industry segment would be able to pull more labor from the domestic pool if they increase wages above other industries competing for the same pool of labor. That does not, however, increase the size of the domestic pool, which is already inadequate in size or in projections.

For sectors such as agriculture that face global competition, we are already struggling to prevent the outsourcing of agriculture. Increasing wages will not help. Nevertheless, our wages are already increasing. In Yuma, for example, seasonal field workers can make upwards of $14 per hour, and we continue to have labor shortages.

If agriculture increases wages beyond their ability to compete in a world market, our business will move to other countries. Jobs, economic growth, capital creation and security would also be packed in the saddlebags for a one-way journey. This is not a fact to be ignored or taken lightly.

In the meantime, our visa programs to access the labor we need are inadequate, broken or strewn with obstacles that prevent timely and legal access to foreign labor.

The Arizona Farm Bureau continues to insist this matter is a three-legged stool: border security, enforcement and legal access to reliable pools of legal labor. This third leg of the stool consists of necessary temporary worker programs and the overhaul of our visa programs to insure the labor we need.

Kevin Rogers of Mesa is president of the Arizona Farm Bureau. Mr. Rogers is a fourth generation cotton, hay, corn and barley farmer in the Phoenix area.