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Legislation likely to be approved by the House Judiciary Committee today will make life worse for hundreds of thousands of farmworkers – many of them U.S. citizens – already in this country and working in the fields, while denying current undocumented farmworkers a road map to citizenship and destabilizing the country’s farm labor force, the president of Farmworker Justice said today.
“The Agricultural Guestworker Act (HR 1773) sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) would aggravate the problems in our broken immigration policy by expanding employer access to vulnerable new “guestworkers” brought in from outside the country, displacing hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants working in agricultural labor. The guestworkers available to employers under the new system would be deprived of basic labor protections and guestworkers attempting to challenge a violation of wage standards or other working conditions would not have meaningful access to attorneys or the courts. Meanwhile, growers would have access to another 500,000 new guestworkers at wage rates even lower than those prevailing today.
“While some undocumented farmworkers in the U.S. would be eligible to become guestworkers, these workers would simply be trading one form of second-class status for another, and would have no chance to become a member of the society they help to feed. The bill would also tear families apart by failing to provide any opportunity for the farmworkers’ spouses and children to obtain legal immigration status.
“This is a one-sided bill that does nothing to benefit the men and women working to put food on our tables. It stands in stark contrast to the more balanced agricultural immigration compromise drafted by a bipartisan group of senators and a coalition of interested parties including the United Farm Workers and agricultural employers. That compromise would benefit not only farmworkers and agricultural employers, but also our national interest in a secure, safe food supply.
“We are a nation of immigrants, not a nation of guestworkers,” Goldstein said.
A new report profiling American farmworkers and their stories dispels the myth that U.S. workers do not take jobs as farmworkers.
Who Works the Fields? The Stories of Americans Who Feed Us offers a sampling of stories from both U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents working on farms. Although a majority of farmworkers today are undocumented immigrants, there are hundreds of thousands of legally authorized U.S. workers in the agricultural labor force.
Please call the Members of Congress on the House Judiciary Committee, especially if they represent your district. The list is below. Tell them to OPPOSE the Goodlatte “Agricultural Guestworker Act,” H.R. 1773. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a “mark up” to debate, amend and probably vote on H.R. 1773. Rep. Goodlatte (R.-Va.) chairs the Judiciary Committee; his bill’s cosponsors include Rep. Gowdy (R-SC) chair of the immigration subcommittee.
This bill would establish a new H-2C agricultural guestworker program that would lower farmworkers’ wages, eliminate labor protections that have existed for decades under the H-2A and Bracero programs, minimize government oversight, allow displacement of US farmworkers and exploitation of vulnerable guestworkers, and deprive farmworkers of meaningful access to the justice system.
The bill would not allow undocumented farmworkers in the United States, or their family members, to earn green cards or the opportunity for citizenship. It does not fix our broken immigration system; it would make it far worse.
This anti-worker, anti-immigrant bill is inconsistent with the approach taken by the Senate “Gang of Eight” in the tough but acceptable labor-management compromise on agricultural workers in the bipartisan immigration proposal, S.744. Read the Farmworker Justice legislative analysis of the Goodlatte Agricultural Guestworker Act at our website page on Immigration Reform and Farmworkers.
You may reach them by calling the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Read full article for listing of Committee Members:
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Please call the Members of Congress on the House Judiciary Committee, especially if they represent your district. The list is below. Tell them to OPPOSE the Goodlatte “Agricultural Guestworker Act,” H.R. 1773. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a “mark up” to debate, amend and probably vote on H.R. 1773. Rep. Goodlatte (R.-Va.) chairs the Judiciary Committee; his bill’s cosponsors include Rep. Gowdy (R-SC) chair of the immigration subcommittee.
This bill would establish a new H-2C agricultural guestworker program that would lower farmworkers’ wages, eliminate labor protections that have existed for decades under the H-2A and Bracero programs, minimize government oversight, allow displacement of US farmworkers and exploitation of vulnerable guestworkers, and deprive farmworkers of meaningful access to the justice system.
The bill would not allow undocumented farmworkers in the United States, or their family members, to earn green cards or the opportunity for citizenship. It does not fix our broken immigration system; it would make it far worse.
This anti-worker, anti-immigrant bill is inconsistent with the approach taken by the Senate “Gang of Eight” in the tough but acceptable labor-management compromise on agricultural workers in the bipartisan immigration proposal, S.744. Read the Farmworker Justice legislative analysis of the Goodlatte Agricultural Guestworker Act at our website page on Immigration Reform and Farmworkers.
Committee Members are listed below. You may reach them by calling the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Republicans
Goodlatte (R) Chairman, Virginia, 6th
Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R) Wisconsin, 5th
Coble (R) North Carolina, 6th
Lamar Smith (R) Texas, 21st
Chabot (R) Ohio, 1st
Bachus (R) Alabama, 6th
Issa (R) California, 49th
Forbes (R) Virginia, 4th
King (R) Iowa, 4th
Franks (R) Arizona, 8th
Gohmert (R) Texas, 1st
Jordan (R) Ohio, 4th
Poe (R) Texas, 2nd
Chaffetz (R) Utah, 3rd
Marino (R) Pennsylvania, 10th
Gowdy (R) South Carolina, 4th
Amodei (R) Nevada, 2nd
Labrador (R) Idaho, 1st
Farenthold (R) Texas, 27th
Holding (R) North Carolina, 13th
Collins (R) Georgia, 9th
DeSantis (R) Florida, 6th
Democrats
Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member, (D) Michigan, 13th
Nadler (D) New York, 10th
Scott (D) Virginia, 3rd
Watt (D) North Carolina, 12th
Lofgren (D) California, 19th
Jackson Lee (D) Texas, 18th
Cohen (D) Tennessee, 9th
Johnson (D) Georgia, 4th
Pierluisi (D) Puerto Rico, (At-large)
Chu (D) California, 27th
Deutch (D) Florida, 21st
Gutierrez (D) Illinois, 4th
Bass (D) California, 37th
Richmond (D) Louisiana, 2nd
DelBene (D) Washington, 1st
Garcia (D) Florida, 26th
Jeffries (D) New York, 8th
Immigration
Stay in the know by reading our briefs on the latest happenings in immigration reform and the impacts on farmworkers.
Immigration reform updates
Immigration is a critically important issue for farmworkers. Learn about current legislation proposals impacting farmworkers.
Learn about the history of guestworker programs, H-2A program for temporary agricultural work, and the H-2B visa program.