Immigration Reform Should Avoid Creating New Armies of Guestworkers

Farmworker Justice Statement on U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary  Hearing on Potential Reforms to Agricultural Guestworker Program
Farmworker Justice President Bruce Goldstein issued the following statement in advance of a hearing today of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, focused on guestworker programs for agricultural work.

“Our nation’s broken immigration system has created an atmosphere that is fundamentally unfair to all of our our nation’s farmworkers, including the men and women we call ‘guests.’

We believe Congress should enact legislation that creates a roadmap to citizenship for aspiring Americans already in this country, including farmworkers and their families. Going forward, any future workers from abroad should be afforded the same legal protections as U.S. workers and be given an opportunity to eventually earn citizenship. Immigration reform should be a stepping stone toward modernizing agricultural labor practices and treating farmworkers with the respect they deserve.”