Goodlatte introduces Ag Guestworker Act
April 26, 2013 | 06:19 PM
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., today introduced an agricultural guestworker program bill, but the Agriculture Workforce Coalition, which represents farm employers, called it only a first step in the process and the United Farm Workers said it opposes the measure because it would recreate the old bracero program.
The bill does not appear to create a path for undocumented workers currently in the United States to achieve legal status.
Goodlatte said in a news release that the Agricultural Guestworker “AG” Act “is one piece that brings us closer to solving the immigration puzzle. While it is important that we reform our immigration system as a whole, we must look at each of the individual issues within the larger system to ensure that we get immigration reform right. If we fail to examine each issue methodically, we risk making the same mistakes of the past that have created the problems we face today.”
The program would be run by the Agriculture Department.
Original cosponsors of the AG Act include Republican Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Blake Farenthold of Texas, George Holding of North Carolina, Ted Poe of Texas, Lamar Smith of Texas, and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.
The bill eliminates what Goodlatte calls “special treatment for the Legal Services Corporation.” It also says that the guest workers would not be eligible for Obamacare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, or “other welfare programs.”
The Agriculture Workforce Coalition said Goodlatte “has recognized that America’s farmers, ranchers and growers need congressional action to ensure a legal and stable workforce.”
But the coalition also said that the bill “represents an important first step” in the House and that it “remains committed to the landmark agreement on agricultural immigration reform that was reached with the United Farm Workers.”
The farmworker section of the Senate immigration reform bill is based on that agreement.
The United Farm Workers said in a news release issued from its headquarters in Keene, Calif., that the Goodlatte proposal “would create a new agricultural guest worker program that would result in massive job losses for U.S. workers by transforming the farm labor force into a system of temporary workers with no meaningful protections or rights.”
“Besides not including a new immigration process that would allow farm workers who feed us every day to legalize their status and earn permanent legal residence over time, Goodlatte’s proposed immigration reform plan would eliminate many long-standing worker protections and slash wages for foreign and domestic workers,” United Farm Workers spokeswoman Maria Machuca said.
“Instead, we urge lawmakers to support the comprehensive immigration reform bill currently in the Senate, which has bipartisan support.”
The Goodlatte proposal, the UFW said in the news release, “would deprive U.S. farm workers of jobs by minimizing the recruitment obligations of employers, slashing wages and withholding 10 percent of a workers’ wages.”
“It would also minimize government oversight, limit workers access to judicial relief and legal assistance, and reduce temporary workers' minimum-work guarantee,” the UFW said. “Further, it would eliminate the requirement that employers provide housing for temporary workers and U.S. workers who travel to the worksite and eliminate travel-expense reimbursement for temporary workers.”
“In addition, Goodlatte’s proposal would not provide a roadmap to citizenship for the current farm worker labor force and would only allow them to apply for temporary worker visas,” the UFW said.
