Judiciary Committee Hearing on Immigration Revealed Misconceptions About Farmworkers

Yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “America's Immigration System: Opportunities for Legal Immigration and Enforcement of Laws against Illegal Immigration,” addressed the current immigration system and the need for reform.

The first panel of witnesses focused on the current legal immigration system and the second panel discussed past and current immigration enforcement. Agricultural labor was a central talking point in the hearing and the first panel’s discussion unfortunately included various misconceptions about the farm labor market. We’ve highlighted our top 5.

1) High skilled workers deserve greencards; whereas, farmworkers and other less-skilled workers should get guestworker visas. Most Committee members appeared to assume that high-skilled immigrant workers deserve green cards, portability of their visas and family unification; whereas, future farmworkers seeking to work in the US should be viewed as low-skilled workers who should only be offered restrictive guestworker visas. Not everyone bought into this dichotomy. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and Representatives Garcia, Jackson Lee, Jeffries, Richmond and others asserted the need to value less skilled workers with some expressing concern over creating a permanent underclass of workers who will not have the opportunity to become citizens.

2) There are no US farmworkers. Some Committee members reiterated grower claims that there are no US workers and that the H-2A program is unworkable and should be replaced with a new guestworker program. Representative Issa went so far as to ask whether it is necessary to pay “American wages for an American job” or can we offer wages that are low by US standards but higher than those offered in the worker’s home country? One problem with this is that there are US farmworkers who need their agricultural jobs and should be protected against an influx of cheap foreign labor. There are an estimated 500,000 – 700,000 farmworkers who hold citizenship or green cards. In addition, when comprehensive immigration reform passes, there will also be about one million undocumented farmworkers who will receive legal immigration status. Most of these workers will stay in agriculture for years, especially if growers improve job terms and the government grants farmworkers equal rights. Further, a guestworker program with few labor protections and low wages will deteriorate already inadequate wages and displace U.S. workers. Farmworkers must pay the cost of living in the U.S. and should receive appropriate wages.

3) Without cheap labor, growers will go out of business. Embedded in the committee’s discussion of the future flow of agricultural workers is an assumption that agribusiness can’t afford to pay higher wages to attract and retain US workers. This is simply false. Agricultural profits have increased in recent years. California, a state with many labor intensive crops experienced a 45 percent increase in farm profits from $11.1 billion in 2010 to $16.1 in 2011. In any other industry, employers must pay market wages to attract workers. Yet, agriculture expects to have a special legislative fix that will supply them with an unlimited supply of cheap foreign labor. In addition, there are creative solutions under which all participants in the food system, including consumers and produce retailers, contribute to providing farmworkers with a living wage. Farmworkers’ wages could increase substantially with only a miniscule impact on the cost of food for consumers.

4) The H-2A agricultural guestworker program is unworkable. Several committee members repeated the claim of some employers that the current temporary foreign agricultural worker program is “unworkable” even though there is no cap on the number of H-2A visas each year. The H-2A guestworker program serves the employers who use it. The Department of Labor approves about 95% of employers’ applications and has improved the efficiency of the program recently. However, the H-2A program is rife with abuse because it is fundamentally flawed. H-2A workers are tied to an employer for an entire season, must leave the country when the job ends, making workers very unlikely to complain about workplace violations. Rep. Issa and others have pointed to Canada’s agricultural guestworker system as a workable program, but it also results in patterns of abuse and should not be the model.

5) Dairy needs a temporary foreign worker program. While many employees of dairies may be undocumented, legalization will solve this. For the most part, dairy can’t use the H-2A program because it hires for year-round jobs. The justification for the H-2A program is that it is harder to attract US workers to temporary and seasonal jobs. Dairies do not fall into this category. Like other farmworkers, dairy workers work long hours (often 12 hour shifts) for low pay and face many occupational safety hazards. Legalizing current undocumented dairy workers will afford them the ability to compete and bargain for better wages and workplace conditions. A guestworker program for dairy workers would separate families and create a permanent underclass of workers, which would be antithetical to American values of equality and democracy.

The Second Panel Addressed the Flaws of the Guestworker Program and Stressed Protecting Workers

Fortunately, in the second panel on immigration enforcement, Rep. Chu spoke about the routine exploitation of immigrant workers, including guestworkers, who face the threat of deportation when they speak out against abuse. She went on to say that employers that exploit immigrant workers are able to undercut good employers.

Muzzafar Chisti, of the Migration Policy Institute, responded by stressing the importance of strong labor protections for both US workers and new immigrant workers in any plan for the future flow of workers. Farmworker Justice agrees with his recommendations that future immigrant workers have equal wages, protections and access to the courts as US workers. Immigrant workers in any visa program must have the right to move from one employer to another, and ultimately have a right to become permanent residents. As important contributors to our economy, farmworkers, now and in the future, should be given true economic freedom to find agricultural jobs and improve their conditions; and an opportunity to earn immigration status and citizenship.

Judiciary Committee Hearing on Immigration Revealed Misconceptions About Farmworkers

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