Congressman Dave Loebsack got coffee with constituents in Washington Saturday. The Democrat met with constituents at Hy-Vee and discussed a variety of topics including cooperation among the parties to pass legislation, military service, and immigration reform. Regarding immigration, Loebsack said he would like to see comprehensive immigration reform. He added that there needs to be upgrades on border security with increased technology including aerial surveillance with drones. He said there needs to be a way to find more legal workers especially in Iowa through immigration reform, “Republican politicians who will talk honestly about this, forthrightly about this, and I’ve heard that from the Governor, Joni Ernst, they recognize that we have a worker shortage in Iowa and that we have to figure out a way to get more workers here and get them here legally. And so we’ve got to have more H2C, H2A visas. We’ve got to allow that happen because we don’t have enough workers in Iowa, and our demographics are such that we’re never going to have enough workers from Iowa to fill all these jobs. And so that’s got to be part of comprehensive immigration reform.”

He also would like to see employers use e-verify systems when hiring employees, “And I am for e-verify, electronic verification, it is not going to solve the problem 100% but it is going to go some distance and require these employers to use that. And then if they don’t use that and they’re hiring people illegally, then they need to be fined as far as I’m concerned, you know, they need to be held accountable, too.”

Loebsack made three stops on his Coffee with Your Congressman tour on Saturday across southeast Iowa including Washington, Mt. Pleasant, and Keosauqua.