NILES — Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey will join police across the nation and municipalities to talk about immigration reform Wednesday in Washington D.C.

Bailey, who is also the president of the Michigan Sheriff’s Association, will be among nearly 50 other law enforcement officials in the discussion. On the agenda, Bailey will meet with Congress during a media event on Capitol Hill Wednesday. In the afternoon, the discussion will continue as the officers take part in a roundtable discussion that will be hosted by the Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. Administration officials and policymakers will be among those in attendance.

Bailey said he hopes to convey an urgency that Congress pass legislation pertaining to security aspects of immigration reform. He said he believes some efficiencies in the legislation have instigated public safety challenges, including how to address the illegal immigrants who have called America home for a number of years.

“It is our intention to tell Congress that their failure to deal with this issue for 20 years has made our communities less safe and has undermined our promise to the people who elected us to keep them safe,” he said.

Bailey said discussing border security will be a top issue, but that he also hopes to talk about avenues for getting immigrants to the U.S. legally on a work visa. In Berrien County, Bailey said this part of the discussion is particularly important to local farmers.

“We got to come up with securing the border and we got to come up with how do we continue to get the workers up here we need, throughout not just Michigan, but through the country,” he said. “We need migrants to come up here and pick our fruit. Without that we are in trouble. We need to make sure they get the work force that they need.”

Other topics Bailey said he hopes to bring to the forefront are strategies to easily identify criminal illegal aliens, and explore ways to expand the partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement partners.

Bailey emphasized that he supports legal immigration.

“Us sheriffs just want the border protected so that illegal aliens are not continually coming over here and not doing it the right way,” Bailey said. “None of us are against immigration. We are against illegal immigration.”

Additionally, he said he sees the meeting as an opportunity to represent southwest Michigan and that he to push for “meaningful immigration reform.”