Barack Obama may not have lifted a finger on immigration, but he has already pissed everybody off.



On 6 October, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services advertised a larger than usual request for contractors, asking for 34m stiff little plastic cards of the kind that are used for work permits and green cards. This sparked speculation on whether the oversized order was in preparation for Obama’s long-awaited executive action on immigration. But the White House kept mum, deflecting questions on whether USCIS’s order was directly connected to imminent immigration reform.

Pro-reform activists are frustrated with Congress’s inaction on immigration and sceptical detractors are questioning the president’s contempt of Congress. Everybody is frothing at the mouth.

You know things are bad when Silicon Valley, as infinite in its optimism as in its bank accounts, gets frustrated. So it should have caused some alarm in immigration circles when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg quietly fired Joe Green, the head of Fwd.us – the advocacy non-profit he backed along with other technology big shots such as Bill Gates and Sean Parker.



Fwd.us has raised nearly $50m towards lobbying for immigration reform. Zuckerberg emailed investors about the change in leadership with nary a good word for Green. Recode reports that Green’s exit stemmed from impatience over the organization’s failure to meaningfully influence Washington on immigration measures.

Immigration advocates are not giving up. Reshma Shamasunder, the executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, an immigration advocacy non-profit, tellsus, tells the Guardian that even though federal action on immigration has been delayed, states like California are beginning to lead the way. Our conversation, below, has been edited for space and clarity.

President Barack Obama speaks as Mark Zuckerberg looks on at Facebook headquarters in California in 2011. Zuckerberg has become frustrated with attempts to influence Washington on immigration reform. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Where do states stand on the topic of immigration reform in light of the midterms?



Here in California, for the last couple of years our state’s lawmakers have made the decision that if there’s going to be stalling at the federal level, then we’re going to lead the way and push forward.

The number of bills that have been passed in California has been astounding. We do everything from expanding the in-state tuition program for students and providing them loans; anti-retaliation against immigrant workers, drivers licenses for all Californians and so on.

I think it just shows our complete anger with the federal government and their lack of action and we will lead this ourselves if necessary.

Will the anger and frustration with the lack of action on immigration be reflected in the elections?



Just because people are not immigrants doesn’t mean that they don’t care about immigration issues.

The largest growing population that’s going to come of age to vote, this year and in the coming years, are children of immigrants. That’s why there has been so much anger. Most of the families are mixed-status families and obviously they care about what happens to their family members.

In California, who are the different communities that will be affected by immigration reforms?

Families are being separated because of deportation. People are being harmed in a very real way. At a minimum, it is critical that to those who are undocumented, who are being torn apart from their families, the president does act to mitigate that situation.

What other issues does long-term immigration reform need to work on?



Even aside from that, there’s all kinds of backlogs and issues around H1B workers as also the wait time on green cards for immigrants from certain countries. Family reunification is a really big issue for the Asian American community.

These are all issues that must be addressed in a comprehensive immigration reform. Unfortunately we know that this Congress is completely irresponsible in its actions and these issues are not going to be addressed through administrative release.

What is the future of immigration as a political issue between now and 2016?

I think that for the next couple of years, a lot of the future of real change is going to happen at the state and local levels. There are states who have actually said we’re no longer going to honor any kind of requests from immigration to hold people for deportation. And if you’re not going to do something, then we will. Illinois and New Mexico already have driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Here in California, we launched a campaign to promote healthcare for all through the state Medicaid program as well as a parallel exchange that would cover higher-income undocumented who are uninsured. There’s been a lot of momentum around it.

We cannot as states make the decision to provide people with green cards or make them legal permanent residents. But we will do everything to fully integrate immigrants into our communities and no longer have to live in fear.

American farmers are having a tough time finding workers to help milk their cows. Photograph: David Levene

Maureen Torrey Marshall is the owner of Torrey Farms, located outside of Elba, New York. She is a past chairwoman of the United Fresh Produce Association, past chairwoman of the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Advisory Committee, and past director of the Produce Marketing Association. In 2012, she testified in front of the House judiciary subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement about the need for guest workers on US farms. Now, more than two years later, here is her take on why immigration reform should still be one of America’s top priorities.

As told to Jana Kasperkevic

I am a farmer in upstate New York, an 11th generation of farming in this country. Our farm in Genesee County has been in our family since 1803. We grow a lot of hand-cropped vegetables, such as cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, summer squash, onions and potatoes.

Farm work has always been done by migrants. In 1996, we saw there was going to be a change in immigration policy. It’s when we started working on reform, because we knew that we weren’t going to have a labor source. Then 9/11 happened, and so now there’s a lot tougher enforcement by the government with people who are here in the country illegally.

We are at the point now that there are not enough people to work on the farms legally. Currently, on the dairy farms, there is about a 30% shortage of people available to work.

You either have an illegal labor force, where you are always concerned about an I-9 audit – and after you have an I-9 audit, you have to let your employees go.



Or, for the specialty crop and seasonal workers, there is an H-2A visa program, which has a lot of cumbersome regulations to it. You have to be a magician and be able to figure out when your crops are going to be ready to harvest. You are supposed to know when you are going to have a frost! It’s a very rigid program that determines when you plant, when you harvest, and it’s not very flexible if you have natural disasters.

With the dairy portion on farming, there is no guest worker program. Nor can you use H-2A.

A lot of the time, people don’t relate. They think they get their food and milk from the grocery store, and don’t give any thought beyond that to what’s actually happening or to the important role that the farm workers play.

Milk doesn’t grow on trees, and dairy farmers are having trouble finding workers because of immigration laws. Photograph: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP/Getty Images

I am afraid that people don’t realize that we are losing farmers that grow specialty crops or are milking cows, because if they can’t find labor, they go and grow a crop that can be harvested by a machine. We are making technology. We have a lot of people to feed by 2050. United States is the leading producer in the world and we need to keep agriculture moving along and making advancements. We, [farmers], are down to 1% of the population right now. Once you lose those skills, you don’t get them back. You don’t get them all from a textbook. A lot of it is skills that are passed down from one generation to the next.

The majority of my time, and my brothers’ time, is spent thinking how we can do it with less labor. You think: how can I make it easier and better? But then you are eliminating some crops. When you reach the balancing point where it’s not viable to do it any more, then you are definitely going to change your crop mix.

What would help us? To pass a workable guest worker program, to make immigration reform address the people that are already here working on our farms, enabling them to stay.

I am discouraged. We get so many hopes and then they get dashed. Our lifetime investment is in our farm.

I have seven nieces and nephews that are back to farm already. There are a lot of young people wanting and coming back to the farms. We still have hope that our government will come to their senses and get immigration fixed.