Immigration Bill Important to Farmers

July 12, 2001

An immigration reform bill introduced this week by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) could be valuable in providing legal workers for farmers and ranchers who need an additional labor force, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunities and Benefits Security Act II (S. 1161) closely parallels a bill Sen. Craig introduced in the 106th Congress as well as compromise reform legislation. The compromise attracted broad bipartisan support but narrowly failed late in the congressional session in December.

"This bill represents an important step forward in the long-running debate on farmworker immigration reform," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "Everyone knows farmers are struggling right now, and ensuring farm employers a legal labor force they can afford to employ will help these farmers survive until the farm economy improves. "Passage of this bill will benefit farm employers, farm workers and the farm economy," Stallman said. "It will reform the temporary worker visa program for agriculture, the so-called H-2a program, by streamlining the application procedure and making the requirement for immigrant employee wages uniform with temporary immigration programs for nurses, computer programmers and food processing workers."

Craig's new bill would offer illegal farmworkers an opportunity to gain a legal work status. They would be required to work in agriculture for about 150 days per year in four out of six years. Once that work obligation has been completed, workers could apply for residency status to allow them to remain in the United States or travel freely between this country and their home country. A similar worker applying for residency while in Mexico would have to wait about six years for his application to be processed, and would be ineligible to work while waiting.

Stallman said, "The Craig bill will make these workers legally eligible to perform a vital service to a basic American industry; otherwise, they'd have to wait in Mexico for their number to come up, while we need them to work on American farms."