The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee approved by one vote a bill to create a year-round H-2C agricultural guestworker program that for the first time is open to meatpackers, dairies and the timber industry. Democrats, defeated in every attempt to guarantee higher wages or better conditions for farm workers, said the bill, sponsored by committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, was too extreme for Congress to accept.
The H2-C program would replace the seasonal H2-A program now in use and criticized as unduly complicated, unwieldy and costly. Goodlatte said the H2-C bill and accompanying legislation to mandate that all employers use the E-Verify network to see if job applicants can work legally in the United States would be tools for President Trump in stopping illegal immigration.
An estimated half of U.S. farm workers – 1 million or more people – are believed to be undocumented. Farm groups have pressed for legislation that would assure a reliable and legal workforce.
The H-2C program would “restore the forces of the free market” to farm labor, said Goodlatte, in place of the “red tape and excessive costs” of the H-2A system. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren said the H-2C bill would strip ag workers of coverage by many labor laws and put them in “serfdom.” Pramila Jayapal of Washington state said it would be a “system leading to indentured servitude.”
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway said the Goodlatte bill “respects our nation’s immigration laws and keeps American agriculture competitive.” The nonprofit group Farmworker Justice said the bill was “anti-immigrant and anti-worker” and would not solve the problem of undocumented farm workers.
Goodlatte’s bill relieves employers of responsibility to pay for transportation and housing of guestworkers and allows wages as low as $8.34 an hour, much lower than the “adverse effect wage rate” now mandated. Workers will gain the freedom to switch jobs once E-Verify is in use. Visas would run for 18 months – twice as long as the H-2A average – and up to three years for specialized jobs before workers are obliged to leave the country and re-apply. Ten percent of their wages would be available at U.S. consulates in the home country. Undocumented workers could gain legal status by joining the H-2C program but would be required to return to their home country.
Two hard-line conservatives, Republicans Steve King of Iowa and Louie Gohmert of Texas, voted against the bill in the otherwise party-line vote that approved the bill, 17-16, and cleared it for floor debate. Five Republicans did not vote.
On a 10-20 roll call, the Republican majority defeated the Democratic alternative, sponsored by Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, for a “blue card” program to give legal status to undocumented farm workers who show consistent employment in U.S. agriculture for two years, pay a fine and pass a background check. A three- to five-year path to citizenship would be available to those who continue to work in agriculture.
“Under the Republican proposal, the workers are not people,” said Gutierrez, “rather they would be disposable.”
Farm labor shortages will not be met by giving “amnesty” to undocumented workers, said Goodlatte. He predicted workers would abandon the farm under the blue card plan. “Once you have a green card, you can do anything.”
The H-2C program would issue 450,000 new visas each year, with 40,000 earmarked for poultry and meat packing plants. Texas Republican Blake Farenthold won a voice vote for his amendment to limit H-2C workers to two entry-level jobs, the “kill floor” and carcass “break down,” and to pay them at the prevailing local wage, which would be higher than the formula that Goodlatte proposed.
Democrats said their proposals for higher wage scales and greater job protections would benefit American workers, by preventing deterioration of their pay, while aiding guestworkers. Republicans said the guestworker program had to be expanded beyond the farm because of the difficulty in finding manual labor.
“You will see much higher (pay rates) than the minimum wage,” said Goodlatte in opposing a Lofgren amendment on base pay. At a different point in debate, Texas Republican Ted Poe said, “Nobody is forcing people to take these jobs. It is not slavery. They can turn them down.”
For a two-page summary of the Goodlatte bill, click here.