Creating Alternative Water Supplies & Workers Applying For DAPA and DACA

Creating Alternative Water Supplies & Workers Applying For DAPA and DACA

Creating Alternative Water Supplies & Workers Applying For DAPA and DACA

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

With the Governor's drought emergency declaration now expanded to include roughly 44% of the state the Department of Ecology is working with available funds to lease water rights and develop grant programs that will boost stream flows, provide water for farming and create alternative water supplies. The $9 million in drought funding recently requested by Ecology from the Legislature would be used in drought declared areas for emergency water-right permits, changes to existing water rights, approving water right transfers, and agricultural and fisheries projects. Currently, 16 watersheds in Western Washington and 8 in Eastern Washington are expecting to experience drought related hardships.

WAFLA Director Dan Fazio recently received notice from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that there would be no "safe harbor" for employers who find workers are illegal, and that employers who receive knowledge a worker is not work authorized should terminate that worker.

FAZIO: The letter from ICE confirmed that employers should put a system in place so that they are not aware of workers who are applying for DAPA and DACA. The good news is that it's relatively easy to put a system like that in place. We have a policy on our website that employers can use, and I really can't conceive of the government ever going after an employer for helping a person apply for the program that the government is putting out there. But they did remind us that employers need to take care; that if an employee asks for assistance, they should just refer them to an immigration attorney.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.

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