Rebuffed by the Senate last year, two U.S. representatives on Wednesday reintroduced their bipartisan bill to create legal status for undocumented farmworkers and to streamline the H-2A visa program for guestworkers. Many of the bill’s provisions were incorporated into the comprehensive immigration reform bill that is backed by President Biden, but it proposes a longer and more expensive path to obtaining a green card than the White House plan.
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California and Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington State said their bill would assure a legal and reliable workforce for the agriculture sector and make it easier to employ foreign workers. Their bill would provide three-year visas to guestworkers and allow up to 60,000 of them to work year-round on dairy farms and at other locations offering steady work. At present, H-2A visas are granted only for seasonal labor.
The Lofgren-Newhouse bill, which was backed by dozens of farm groups in 2019, passed the House on a strong bipartisan vote in December 2019 but died without action in the Senate at the end of 2020. It was the first agricultural labor reform legislation to pass the House since 1986.
“Stabilizing the workforce will protect the future of our farms and our food supply,” said Lofgren, who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration. Newhouse, who’s a farmer, said, “Bringing our agriculture labor program into the 21st century is absolutely critical as we work to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and ensure a stable food supply chain in the United States.”
The Biden administration’s immigration plan would make undocumented farmworkers and their families eligible for green cards immediately if they pass background checks, pay fees, and have performed at least 400 days of farm work in the past five years. They could apply for citizenship three years later if they pass additional background checks and demonstrate knowledge of English and U.S. civics.
By contrast, the Lofgren-Newhouse bill would grant legal status to undocumented farmworkers who have performed at least 180 days of labor in the past two years. They could retain the “certified agricultural worker” status indefinitely by continuing to work for at least 100 days a year in agriculture. Workers who want a green card would have to complete four to eight additional years of farm work to qualify. The H-2A program would be streamlined by allowing employers to file one application for all the workers they need during a year, freeze wages for one year, and then limit wage increases for the next nine years. It also would phase in use of the E-Verify electronic database to ensure that applicants can work legally in the United States.
Farm groups, including the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Apple Association, applauded the reintroduction of the farm labor bill. Jim Bair, chief executive of U.S. Apple, said the Lofgren-Newhouse bill would assure a labor supply for agriculture and contain the costs of the H-2A program. “The bill is a compromise and the first step in a lengthy process,” said Bair.
A two-page summary of the bill is available here.