Senate Republicans threw up barriers on Wednesday to a House-passed bill that would give legal status to undocumented farmworkers and streamline the H-2A guestworker program. They called for action first to tighten control of the U.S.-Mexico border and vowed to vote against “amnesty” for undocumented farmworkers, who are estimated to make up half of the agricultural labor force.
“If you don’t secure the border first, you’re going to incentivize” illegal entry, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “If we legalize one worker … you’re going to have a run on the border.” When Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack disagreed, Graham responded, in incredulous tones, “You don’t believe so?”
Other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee joined Graham in saying border security was paramount. They also charged the House bill would give amnesty to workers who entered the country illegally. Proponents say farmworkers and their families would earn legal status, as certified agricultural workers, if they pass background checks and continue to work in agriculture. A nine-year path to citizenship would be available to people who work at least 14 years on the farm.
“I’m here today simply to advocate on behalf of American agriculture and these workers, to plead with the Senate to fix this broken [immigration] system to maintain the capacity of this great food and agriculture industry to continue to provide the benefits that we all enjoy in this country,” said Vilsack. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, HR 1603, would assure a legal and reliable workforce for agriculture, where labor shortages are chronic, he said.
“It’s clear” that Republicans don’t want to act on farm labor reform, said Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, who has suggested that citizenship provisions for farmworkers might be added to an infrastructure bill that Democrats could pass on their own. “They are quick to raise pretexts that we can’t do anything.”
Senate Judiciary chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois said GOP objections meant that Congress could not act on any element of immigration reform unless it settled all immigration disputes. “I am loath to accept that premise,” he said. Piecemeal and comprehensive immigration bills, including a 2019 version of HR 1603, have foundered repeatedly in recent years.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said the farm labor bill, which passed the House on a bipartisan 247-174 roll call in March, was “not ripe for legislative action” and needed more work. Cornyn led Republicans in saying that workers would bolt their jobs on the farm as soon as they gained legal status. Legalization “must be coupled with a plan to replace those workers,” he said.
The Republican leader on the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said “the primary focus” of an ag labor bill should be year-round H-2A visas for livestock farms and agricultural processors. At present, there are no year-round visas. The House-passed bill would issue a total of 60,000 visas to work for dairies and other year-round agricultural employers.
“If the labor shortage is not addressed, it could lead to farms and packing plants shutting down, causing serious financial harm to the communities in which they operate,” said Jen Sorenson, president of the National Pork Producers Council. The answer, she said, is “opening the H-2A visa program to year-round labor without a cap.”
More than 213,000 H-2A guestworkers were employed in the country in 2020 out of more than 2 million farmworkers. Some estimates put the farmworker total at 2.5 million, though there is no precise tally.
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute says farmworkers earned an average of $14.62 an hour last year, “far less than even some of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. labor force.”
To watch a video of the Senate Judiciary hearing or to read written testimony by witnesses, click here.