October has not been kind for advocates for farm labor reform.
On Oct. 3, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., postponed his planned Oct. 4 introduction of his Agricultural Guestworker Act because of insufficient support on the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. The legislation seeks to replace the Department of Labor H-2A guest worker program with a proposed H-2C program which would operate under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The bill’s provisions include greater access to guest workers, no pathway to citizenship, a touchback provision for workers, a wage scale that would be 15% above a state’s minimum wage, no requirement for worker housing and transportation. Importantly, the bill would allow currently illegal farmworkers to participate in the program.
On Oct. 8, President Donald Trump introduced a list of immigration policy priorities, none of which talked about the labor needs of agriculture.
In the executive summary of Trump’s immigration policy priorities, Trump talked about border security (building the border wall), interior enforcement (hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers) and merit-based immigration system (establish a points-based system for green cards to protect U.S. workers). The document also calls for mandatory use of E-Verify status verification by employers.
Finally, on Oct. 11, the Departments of Justice and State said they formalized a partnership aimed at protecting U.S. workers. Under the agreement, the agencies will share information about employers that may be engaging in unlawful discrimination, committing fraud, or making other misrepresentations in their use of employment-based visas, such as H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B visas.
All in all, Frank Gasperini, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, Washington, D.C., said Oct. 12 that Trump’s priorities make no mention of agriculture.
“We were kind of left out of it,” he said. “There was a lot of talk about closing borders, hire Americans and buy Americans but I don’t see any of the nice comments (we saw) earlier saying ‘Don’t worry agriculture, we are going to take care of you.’ It is kind of disconcerting.”
Agriculture interests won’t go along with mandatory E-Verify without a fix for agricultural employers, and Gasperini believes members of Congress understand that fact.
However, the White House appears to want to trade action on the “dreamers” — people brought to the U.S. as children without legal documents — in exchange for building the wall, mandatory E-Verify legislation and hiring 10,000 more immigration enforcement agents.
With agriculture helping to elect Trump, Gasperini said it was disappointing that Trump didn’t acknowledge the needs of agriculture.
“It’s been a depressing week,” he said.
