Richmond Times-Dispatch Op-Ed by Bruce Goldstein: Goodlatte Bill moves agriculture in wrong direction

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch Saturday, there are two op-eds regarding agricultural worker immigration policy and the Agricultural Guestworker Act, authored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), and passed by the House Judiciary Committee.  In the first op-ed, Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein criticizes that bill’s approach and calls for a path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and reasonable protections under guestworker programs. Rep. Goodlatte's bill is the worst of all worlds in that it is anti-U.S. worker, anti-immigrant, and anti-worker. The  second op-ed is by Rep. Goodlatte, defending his bill (link included below).

Goldstein: Bill moves agriculture in wrong direction

As the debate over our nation’s immigration policy takes center stage and lawmakers in the Senate pursue the hard work of compromise, Virginia’s 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte is leading a very different charge in the House of Representatives that would aggravate existing problems in the agricultural labor market and displace thousands of farmworkers, many of them U.S. citizens.

Goodlatte is aggressively pushing forward the Agricultural Guestworker Act, which would expand employer access to exploitable and cheap guest workers. Doing so would pave the way for employers to hire foreign guest workers over U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, while making life even harder for the men and women harvesting crops across the country. The bill is anti-U.S. worker and anti-immigrant and it needs to be stopped. It passed out of a committee he chairs in Congress last week.

While undocumented immigrants compose more than half of the farm labor force, there are still hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents working on farms in Virginia and across the country. The provisions in this flawed bill would incentivize employers to displace those U.S. workers by providing access to cheap, exploitable guest workers. That’s bad for U.S. workers and for the guest workers left to do the work.

Agriculture is Virginia’s largest industry, employing almost 60,000 farmers and farmworkers and generating approximately $2.9 billion in output annually — so Goodlatte’s interest is no surprise. He’s well aware that for decades some of Virginia’s tobacco, apple and other farmers have used — and sometimes abused — the existing H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Farmers in Virginia make use of roughly 3,500 agricultural guest workers, placing Virginia among the top 10 states using the program.

Instead of creating armies of “guests” to do our work, it’s time to modernize agricultural labor by granting undocumented farmworkers already hard at work a road map to a true immigration status and citizenship. Goodlatte’s bill does just the opposite by marginalizing farmworkers. The undocumented workers already working in the fields would essentially be required to self-deport with only the hope of obtaining a new job offer and guest worker visa to return. Goodlatte’s bill would cause farmworkers with spouses and children living here in the U.S. to suffer separation and hardship. It also would disrupt our food system.

The new program would allow employers to bring in 500,000 agricultural guest workers per year in addition to those undocumented workers who return home and are brought back on guest worker visas. Neither the current undocumented farmworkers nor the future farmworkers would have the opportunity to earn immigration status and the freedoms of citizenship.

The new program would strip U.S. workers and future guest workers of most of the labor protections they have in the current H-2A program. Guest workers attempting to challenge a violation of wage requirements or other working conditions would not have meaningful access to attorneys or the courts. Meanwhile, participating growers could offer U.S. workers and foreign guest workers wage rates and other job terms even lower than those required in the program today.

There is a compelling alternative to this one-sided bill making its way through the House of Representatives. The Senate’s immigration reform bill includes a carefully balanced compromise for agriculture that has broad support and resulted from months of difficult negotiations between major agribusiness groups, organizations like mine that assist farmworkers and a bipartisan group of senators.

The Senate bill would stabilize the farm labor workforce and ensure a secure food supply by granting experienced undocumented farmworkers and their family members who meet eligibility requirements an opportunity to keep working, obtain legal immigration status and earn lawful permanent residency. It would also give farmers access to future guest workers through a new program that substantially reduces employers’ costs while protecting U.S. workers from job loss and wage depression and preventing abuse of guest workers.

That’s a more humane and more sensible approach than Goodlatte’s bill.

He claims his new bill would put “farmers in the driver’s seat,” but he’s essentially throwing the men and women who are working on those farms today under the bus. The farmworkers putting food on our tables deserve better than Goodlatte’s one-sided bill. Instead of pushing farmworkers farther into the margins of society, it’s time we acknowledge their value and honor their difficult work.

 

Link to Rep. Goodlatte's Op-Ed:

Goodlatte: House bill provides easy access to legal agricultural workforce

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch Saturday, there are two op-eds regarding agricultural worker immigration policy and the Agricultural Guestworker Act, authored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), and passed by the House Judiciary Committee.  In the first op-ed, Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein criticizes that bill’s approach and calls for a path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and reasonable protections under guestworker programs. Rep. Goodlatte's bill is the worst of all worlds in that it is anti-U.S. worker, anti-immigrant, and anti-worker. The  second op-ed is by Rep. Goodlatte, defending his bill (link included below).

Goldstein: Bill moves agriculture in wrong direction

As the debate over our nation’s immigration policy takes center stage and lawmakers in the Senate pursue the hard work of compromise, Virginia’s 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte is leading a very different charge in the House of Representatives that would aggravate existing problems in the agricultural labor market and displace thousands of farmworkers, many of them U.S. citizens.

Goodlatte is aggressively pushing forward the Agricultural Guestworker Act, which would expand employer access to exploitable and cheap guest workers. Doing so would pave the way for employers to hire foreign guest workers over U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, while making life even harder for the men and women harvesting crops across the country. The bill is anti-U.S. worker and anti-immigrant and it needs to be stopped. It passed out of a committee he chairs in Congress last week.

While undocumented immigrants compose more than half of the farm labor force, there are still hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents working on farms in Virginia and across the country. The provisions in this flawed bill would incentivize employers to displace those U.S. workers by providing access to cheap, exploitable guest workers. That’s bad for U.S. workers and for the guest workers left to do the work.

Agriculture is Virginia’s largest industry, employing almost 60,000 farmers and farmworkers and generating approximately $2.9 billion in output annually — so Goodlatte’s interest is no surprise. He’s well aware that for decades some of Virginia’s tobacco, apple and other farmers have used — and sometimes abused — the existing H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Farmers in Virginia make use of roughly 3,500 agricultural guest workers, placing Virginia among the top 10 states using the program.

Instead of creating armies of “guests” to do our work, it’s time to modernize agricultural labor by granting undocumented farmworkers already hard at work a road map to a true immigration status and citizenship. Goodlatte’s bill does just the opposite by marginalizing farmworkers. The undocumented workers already working in the fields would essentially be required to self-deport with only the hope of obtaining a new job offer and guest worker visa to return. Goodlatte’s bill would cause farmworkers with spouses and children living here in the U.S. to suffer separation and hardship. It also would disrupt our food system.

The new program would allow employers to bring in 500,000 agricultural guest workers per year in addition to those undocumented workers who return home and are brought back on guest worker visas. Neither the current undocumented farmworkers nor the future farmworkers would have the opportunity to earn immigration status and the freedoms of citizenship.

The new program would strip U.S. workers and future guest workers of most of the labor protections they have in the current H-2A program. Guest workers attempting to challenge a violation of wage requirements or other working conditions would not have meaningful access to attorneys or the courts. Meanwhile, participating growers could offer U.S. workers and foreign guest workers wage rates and other job terms even lower than those required in the program today.

There is a compelling alternative to this one-sided bill making its way through the House of Representatives. The Senate’s immigration reform bill includes a carefully balanced compromise for agriculture that has broad support and resulted from months of difficult negotiations between major agribusiness groups, organizations like mine that assist farmworkers and a bipartisan group of senators.

The Senate bill would stabilize the farm labor workforce and ensure a secure food supply by granting experienced undocumented farmworkers and their family members who meet eligibility requirements an opportunity to keep working, obtain legal immigration status and earn lawful permanent residency. It would also give farmers access to future guest workers through a new program that substantially reduces employers’ costs while protecting U.S. workers from job loss and wage depression and preventing abuse of guest workers.

That’s a more humane and more sensible approach than Goodlatte’s bill.

He claims his new bill would put “farmers in the driver’s seat,” but he’s essentially throwing the men and women who are working on those farms today under the bus. The farmworkers putting food on our tables deserve better than Goodlatte’s one-sided bill. Instead of pushing farmworkers farther into the margins of society, it’s time we acknowledge their value and honor their difficult work.

 

Link to Rep. Goodlatte's Op-Ed:

Goodlatte: House bill provides easy access to legal agricultural workforce