Tuberville: We need ‘some kind of visa system’ for labor shortages with ‘no chance for citizenship’

As Alabama continues to enjoy having record-low unemployment given a robust economy, one of the problems some industries are facing is an inability to find workers required.

With the race for the U.S. Senate in the primary runoff stage between former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions underway, how to handle that dilemma could be a focal point in the campaign.

At the latter stages of the primary, Sessions and U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope), who was also a competitor for the GOP nod, criticized Tuberville as being a proponent of “amnesty” in discussions about immigrant labor, a charge Tuberville has denied.

In an appearance on Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Tuberville laid out what he called the “right balance” for guest workers and other policies that could be put in place to alleviate labor shortages.

“There is a right balance,” he said. “I’ve been down to see all the nursery people down in South Alabama. They can’t find workers. They put in for so many workers to be delivered from whatever, to give them an opportunity to work in the nursery business. They need hundreds of them. We’re not talking about 15 or 20. We’re talking about hundreds. They come in, they stay for a few months, and then they go back. They don’t bring their families. It’s only the workers.”

“The problem we’re getting into right now is when we let entire families come in,” Tuberville continued. “Families are taking over our hospitals and our schools. We can’t afford it. We don’t have the money to educate the kids in our schools, nor do we have the hospitalization to take care of them. It’s costing us billions of dollars.”

“Yes, we need to be able to use some kind of visa system where you can sign up and say, ‘I need this many, for this many weeks or this many months,'” he added. “Then they go back. No chance for citizenship. You just got to come here, and you’ve got to work.”

Tuberville went on to add the other part of solving labor shortages in Alabama and around the country was to make inroads on workforce development, which may or may not necessarily include completing a four-year college program.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.