Photo: Joebeth Terriquez / EFE
California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Washington Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse reintroduced the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act last week.
This compromise legislation, carefully crafted in negotiations with farmworkers and employers, would create legal status for undocumented farmworkers already living and working in the United States.
The bipartisan legislation passed by wide bipartisan margins in the US House of Representatives in both the 116th and 117th Congress. A summary of the bill in English can be viewed here.
This bill proposes:
• Reforming the H-2A program for temporary nonimmigrant farmworkers to provide more flexibility for employers while ensuring critical protections for workers.
• Establishes a program for farmworkers in the United States to choose to obtain legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the US agricultural economy.
• Focuses on modifications to make the program more responsive and user-friendly for employers and provides year-round access to the program for industries with job needs.
“Immigrant farmworkers put food on America’s table every day,” said UFW President Teresa Romero. “While some members of Congress are rushing to address the needs of farm employers, the reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act reminds us that any true and fair effort at farm immigration reform must first be well done. for the immigrant workers who have been doing the hard work. I have worked in the fields, farms, orchards, dairies, vineyards and ranches of America for decades. If you feed America, you deserve the right to stay in America.”
“We are pleased to see the reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a bipartisan bill that would protect the most vulnerable and essential workers from the threat of deportation,” said the executive director of the UFW Foundation, Diana Tellefson Torres. “Because of the contributions farmworkers have made to the nation during the pandemic and beyond, we urge Congress to pass this legislation. America’s food security depends on professional farmworkers.”
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