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: