Panetta supports Agriculture Worker Program Act
On July 19, Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) announced in a press release on his website that he and other members of Congress were supporting H.R. 2690, the Agriculture Worker Program Act — also known as the Blue Card Bill — which would shield undocumented agriculture workers from deportation and put them on the path to citizenship.
Under the proposed act, farmworkers would have to "show consistent employment in U.S. agriculture over the past two years, pay a fine and pass a thorough background check," to receive a blue card. From there, it provides a path to citizenship for those who remain working in the agriculture industry.
Panetta is one of 46 co-sponsors of the bill introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) last May.
"I grew up on the Central Coast; I understand how important immigration is not just to our economy and our communities but to our country," Panetta said in a release. "When you drive down Highway 1 and Highway 101, and you see those people out there, you understand the hard work that they're doing."
Panetta said comprehensive immigration reform would be ideal.
"In a Congress that has failed to do anything on immigration since 1986, it's time that we step up and actually do something," he said.
Those issues with immigration reform are leaving area farms such as Lakeside Organic Gardens in an ongoing labor shortage, owner Dick Peixote said in the release.
"There's thousands and thousands of people that could be working that, without documentation, we can't hire them," said Peixote, who has been farming in Pajaro Valley for 40 years. "So we have to prioritize where we're going to put the labor because we definitely don't have enough labor to do all the jobs. That's how you see perfectly good food being tilled into the ground."
He said something like the proposed blue card would hopefully lead to a never-ending supply of food on grocery shelves. And more importantly, he added, support for the people who helped to make that happen.
"They are the people who put food on the table every day," he said.
The current co-sponsors of H.R. 2690 are Democrats. Panetta said he is reaching out to Republicans who also represent agriculture hubs to gain their support, as well.
At the San Benito County Farm Bureau, President Pat Wirz said he welcomed the bill and that even more still needs to be done to help local farmworkers achieve citizenship. According to the 2015 San Benito County Crop Report, the most recent available, agriculture was valued at more than $360 million. Harvesting vegetables, by far the largest category grown in the county, is the most labor intensive. Should that labor force remain threatened with deportation, a $257.3 million crop would also be jeopardized.
Brian Little, director for human resources policy for the California Farm Bureau in Sacramento, told BenitoLink that even though the program is intended to help farm workers eventually obtain citizenship, it does little to fix the real problem, which is the H2A Guest Worker Program that is largely dysfunctional.
"Out of 470,000 agricultural workers we employ in California, about 13,000 will be coming to California through the H2A program," he said. "That's a very small fraction of the workers we actually need."
Little said the same percentages hold true nationally as out of the 1.3 million farm workers that are required, the H2A program brings in only about 152,000.
"The program is expensive and difficult to use," Little said. "It frequently breaks down under its own bureaucratic weight because you have three federal agencies that are involved in admitting workers. The problem with the H2A program is you've got to hire a lawyer to hire a farm worker."
He said there needs to be a way to ensure an ongoing flow of farm workers because of the aging labor population who, under the Blue Card program, will retire or move on to other work.
"One of the things we've long advocated for is some sort of replacement agricultural worker program that would supplement the H2A program," he said. "It would allow for a relatively free market to allow people to come legally to work in the United States for a period of time and then return to their home countries, and not be trapped on this side of the border by our immigration laws."
Little said something needs to done soon because people believe the border is porous, and it's anything but. He said for the past five years there has been very little movement across the border. He said recent studies have shown a net migration to Mexico.
"There's not a lot of flow of agricultural workers going back and forth across the border," he said. "One reason being there's a lot of gang and smuggling activity in that region. A lot of people prefer to avoid that."
Tom Nassif, Western Growers' President and CEO, issued a statement in response to the bill: "With the introduction of immigration legislation, the Senate elevates an issue often overlooked in the immigration reform debate: Retention of an existing agriculture workforce. To reform our broken immigration system, Congress must pass bipartisan solutions that acknowledge the contributions and value of current farm workers, while creating a workable program to enable the future flow of labor to American farms. One without the other will not work."
Growers in Monterey and San Benito counties realized years ago they had to do something to retain workers. Rather than depend on itinerate workers, as in the past, some have resorted to increasing mechanized harvesting or retaining a steady workforce, paying them higher wages and benefits, including housing, in some cases. But many of these workers are middle age. Their children, who are most likely U.S. citizens, are more inclined to seek higher education than working in the fields. Thus the need to protect the undocumented workers.
Since President Donald Trump signed an executive order on immigration in January, the labor shortage has increased, according to proponents of the bill. Trump signed three executive orders in January dealing with immigration. One would strip sanctuary cities of federal funds and hire 10,000 more immigration officers. The second would fund the highly-touted wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and hire 5,000 more border patrol agents. And the third would temporarily prevent immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the country.
Those who are undocumented face deportation on a daily basis. According to Farmworker Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, up to 70 percent of the agricultural workforce in the country is undocumented. For this reason, politicians, growers and industry associations are in a rush to support the act.
According to Feinstein, as quoted in The New Food Economy, "This legislation is almost identical to the agricultural component of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act that passed in the Senate and died in the House in 2013. I sat through all the hearings. We did 300 amendments. But there was not a single amendment ever proposed to the agriculture part of the bill."
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL), who announced the bill along with Feinstein, said last May that he would introduce it in the House to legalize farm workers in the United States.
"We are taking steps to get our agriculture industry – the food we eat every day – on a legal footing," he said on his government webpage. "Not just for the immigrant worker, not just for the family, not just because it makes us feel good, but because our agriculture industry and our workforce in farm labor should be on a legal footing."
The bill is also backed by senators from Colorado, Vermont and Hawaii, but there's been no broad talk in Congress of reforming immigration laws this year, according to a Los Angeles Times story. With Democrats in the minority and unable to direct when legislation may be considered, the proposed Agricultural Worker Program Act faces an uphill battle.
According to Congressional records, the bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on May 25, and was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, along with the Committee on Ways and Means. The most recent action taken was on July 11, when it was referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.
For more information on the bill from Rep. Panetta 's webpage: AWPA/Blue Card Bill Summary
Below are Panetta's remarks on the House floor in support of the bill: