Farmworker residency bill with path to legal status passes House, moves to Senate

Kate Cimini | The Californian

The House passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act Wednesday, voting for a measure that would give undocumented farmworkers a pathway to permanent residence.

"This is a chance to solve a problem for America," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who spearheaded the bill.

The last time congress addressed agricultural labor was in 1986.

"This bill...does stabilize the workforce," said Lofgren. "We have farmworkers who have been here a very long time without their papers, living in fear and in some cases, being arrested and deported. We need to allow them to get an agricultural worker visa that is temporary and renewable so they can do the work we need them to do and their employers need them to do."

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If approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act would also change regulations surrounding H-2A temporary farmworkers, shifting how salaries are determined and adding new, temporary visas with a longer working period.

Grower advocates say this would relieve them of an unfair monetary burden while providing them with year-round labor.

“Agriculture has made its case for a narrow, surgical fix to the farm labor crisis," Western Growers Association President and CEO Tom Nassif said in a prepared statement. "The rationale, that foreign hands will harvest our fruits and vegetables and perform many of the other skilled jobs required on American farms, has long been accepted on both sides of the aisle.

"All that remains now is for the Senate and President Trump to act," Nassif said.

The majority of farmworkers in the U.S. are concentrated in California, where more than 420,000 farmworkers cultivate and harvest the crops that feed people across the nation.

Monterey County's 2018 'Farmworker Housing And Action Plan' for the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys shows more than 91,000 agricultural workers lived and worked in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in 2016.

U.C. Davis estimates that up to 60% of California's farmworkers are undocumented. The Center for Farmworker Families' number is even higher, estimating that approximately 75% are undocumented, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.

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The average age of documented farmworkers is also dramatically increasing, leaving the profession in need of an injection of younger, documented laborers.

This pushed Nassif's Western Growers to work for changes to the H-2A program to make it more viable for farmers across the U.S.

The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to temporarily employ guest workers from other countries for six months at a time if there is a shortage of workers willing to take the jobs they offer.

The bill would create additional green cards for people in agriculture and horticulture, and gives H-2A workers who have worked 10 years in agriculture the option to apply for one of those green cards.

The bill also changes the way H-2A wages are calculated, making it more affordable for growers to employ H-2A worker. It follows the Trump Administration's lead after a proposed rule change to H-2A visas over the summer.

"Coming together in a way that is uniform on the part of farmworkers and growers...represents the value of work, of recognizing the importance of the agricultural community...and the joint role growers and farmworkers play in all of that," said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who cast a rare vote for the groundbreaking bill.

"Let's hope across the Capitol we can get a resolution on this so that we can send it to the President of the United States," Pelosi said. "This is a great day."

The bill also creates temporary, three-year visas for agricultural labor. The program is capped, but could be increased at the behest of the Secretaries of Agriculture and Labor through this bill.

Those familiar with the world of agriculture may recall the Blue Card Bill, which also offered a pathway to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and promised a more stable workforce for farmers.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, working alongside other Democrats, has introduced various forms of the Blue Card Bill over the last decade. It has never been signed into law.

The Blue Card Bill offered a jumping-off point for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

The new bill now heads to the Senate. Its bipartisan support makes it much more likely to pass than previous bills that have offered similar pathways to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers, legislators say.

"This is an example of how legislation can get done," said Congressman Jimmy Panetta. "I'm absolutely humbled to be up here standing with democrats and republicans. We grinded out the details about this very difficult legislation. This isn't perfect. This is compromise, just like our democracy."

Kate Cimini is a multimedia journalist for The Californian. Call her at (831) 776-5137 or email kcimini@thecalifornian.com. Subscribe to support local journalism.