The League of Women Voters Ventura County sponsored a panel discussion on immigration that drew a crowd of nearly 90 Saturday in Oxnard.

"Perspectives on Immigration: Economic, Legal, Agricultural, Legislative" featured four panelists, including Congresswoman Lois Capps, attorney Michael Bromund, former agriculture executive Al Guilin, and economist William Hosek.

Though the issue is controversial, the session at the Residence Inn by Marriott at River Ridge was intended to provide members with information. League members nationwide are studying the issue.

Bromund, an immigration attorney from Ventura, gave a historical overview of immigration in the U.S. and explained that it's nothing new in America.

"When Teddy Roosevelt was president, there was an influx of immigrants from Europe," he said. Roosevelt solved the problem by assimilating the immigrants into American culture.

"Hamburgers, hotdogs — the foods we think of as being quintessentially American were assimilated into the American culture by the Germans," he said.

According to Bromund, America is now in the same position of dealing with an influx of immigrants as it was in the early 1900s. Just over 1 million people received their citizenship in 1906. It was the same number in 2006, he said.

Guilin, owner of AG Consultants and former executive vice president of the Limoneira company, addressed the effect that immigration has on the agricultural sector.

"I guess I'm the farmer in the group," he joked.

He said that how one frames the question of immigration colors the answer.

"Is the problem that Mexicans are crossing the border illegally and taking advantage of government benefits?" he asked. "Or is (it) the government ignoring them (that's) the problem?"

Guilin said that illegal workers had been largely ignored by the government until a few years ago, when the government started counting them.

He also said that attempts at reform seem to be directed at immigrant workers, rather than their employers.

"You have to ask yourself who's really breaking the law," he said, "the workers themselves or the people who hire them?"

Failed economic policies and little chance for better opportunities lead many Mexicans to immigrate, legally or not, he said. "It's important to remember that no matter where they come from, they are people, too. They deserve their dignity."

Hosek, an emeritus dean and emeritus professor of economics at CSU Northridge, addressed the economic effects of immigration.

A common myth, he said, is that an influx of immigrant labor depresses wages for everyone. From 2001 to 2007, the amount of labor in Ventura County increased 8 percent while wages went up 2 percent. "It's hard then to argue that the increase of labor depresses wages," he said.

According to Hosek, immigration, legal or illegal, is important to society.

"It brings resources, based on productive labor," he said.

Capps, D-Santa Barbara, told the crowd that if she's less than satisfactory in what she told them, it's because she's less than satisfied with the government's response to the issue of immigration.

She said that she recently returned from a bipartisan trip to Mexico, where she met Mexican legislators.

"They reminded me that they, too, have a big border problem in the south of their country," she said.

Capps said she supports both the Dream Act and the Agriculture Jobs bill.

"California should be the first state to sign on to the Ag Jobs bill," she said.

Pam Pecarich, president of League of Women Voters Ventura County, said that league members across the country are learning about immigration in order to develop a stance.

"We develop a position and then use it to advocate," she said.