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70 ja n ua r y/ f e b r ua r y 2 015 U n tac k e d about what it was like, and they gave me some very good information," she says. Among that information, helen says, was the concept that the majority of guest workers in America have no interest in pur- suing citizenship. "ey love their own countries. ey're here to earn money—to work!" she says. "ey don't want to live here. our arro- gance in thinking they want to live here is quite amazing. e idea that every guest worker wants to be a u.s. citizen is nuts." with that in mind, the Krieble foun- dation works to distinguish "the discussion of border security and temporary workers from the discussion of immigrants and citi- zenship." to address the former, the red Card solution comprises a "smart card" system that would allow foreign workers with no criminal history and confirmed employ- ment offers in the united states to enter the country on guest worker permits, "good for two years, with an ability to change your job to a better job, because the red Card would be job-specific," helen says. under the plan, private employment agencies licensed by the government would be allowed to open offices in foreign coun- tries and authorized to issue—after a back- ground check—temporary non-immigrant worker permits. ese smart cards would include a photograph, fingerprint or other biometric identification, as well as employ- ment information and visa expiration data for easy reading by border agents, law enforcement or employers. "it's a passion of mine, to find a sensible solution," helen says. "is is what America is about; these are our principles. we need to do something that is private sector, mar- ket-driven, with no quotas, because quotas are always wrong and incentivize people to come across illegally." sweeping republican wins in the nov. 4 midterm elections leant the Krieble founda- tion some welcome additional momentum, but it didn't change the terms of the current immigration bill languishing in Congress. And president obama's announcement two weeks later of executive action suspending deportation for several million undocu- mented immigrants has significantly dialed up the pressure (as of press time) on the leg- islative branch to pass reforms. "i've read the recent bill, all 2,000-plus pages, and i can tell you it's an appalling bill," helen says. "it's micromanaged, it's one hand not knowing what the other is doing, it's a huge expansion of government and billions and billions of dollars, and it's not going to be effective. my plan is a doable, simple thing. e bill is 15 pages. e program would be paid for by user fees, not tax dollars. people look at it and say, 'oh my god, this would work,' including democrats, so i think it's a real possibility. "it does not talk about citizenship; it does not talk about green cards," she con- tinues. "it talks about a simple work permit that every groom in America could be legal on, and i think would solve 80 percent of our problems." one thing is for certain: is crippling national problem isn't going away any time soon. now more than ever, there seem to be more questions than answers, and that uncertainty has real ramifications in the equestrian industry. "Comprehensive immigration reform has been a priority of the horse industry for many years," noted a statement by e American horse Council, a non-profit organization representing the equine indus- try in washington, in response to the presi- dent's executive action. "e difficulty horse farms, horse shows, trainers and others have had recruit- ing American workers has forced many to rely on foreign workers and utilize both the h-2A and h-2B temporary foreign worker programs to meet their labor needs. how- ever, these current programs are not reliable and are extremely burdensome to use. in addition, many of the workers employed in the industry may lack legal status…A way to permanently legalize such workers is critical to the industry. "it is very likely that there are work- ers in the horse industry who meet these requirements and will benefit from the president's actions," the release also stated. "[But] the president's action does not fix or even address the many problems with the h-2A and h-2B [visa] programs or address undocumented workers that don't meet the requirements for this new program. for these reasons it remains critical that the Administration and Congress take action on comprehensive immigration reform." And helen Krieble will be doing her part, and then some, to affect action and resolution. "my dad had an old saying: 'if you think you can't, you're right. if you think you can, you might.' is has been the guiding thing in my life," helen says. "go for it! e worst that can happen is you fail. so what? go for something else. But don't just sit on your hands." profiLE profiLE "Our arrogance in thinking they want to live here is quite amazing. e idea that every guest worker wants to be a U.S. citizen is nuts." —helen KrieBle

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