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Republican Judiciary Committee Members Propose Same Old Failed Approach: E-verify Plus Harsh Guestworker Program as the Solution for Agriculture

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security held a hearing on “The Legal Workforce Act.” The hearing focused on Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) E-verify bill, titled “The Legal Workforce Act” filed in the last Congress. The bill would implement mandatory E-verify nationwide, without providing a path to citizenship for the current undocumented workforce or otherwise addressing the broken immigration system. Last Congress’s Legal Workforce Act, HR 1772, would have required that agriculture implement E-verify 24 months after the date of enactment, the latest of any industry.

The witnesses who testified in favor of mandatory E-verify were Randel K. Johnson, Senior Vice President, Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Jill G. Blitstein, Esq., International Employment Manager, Human Resources, North Carolina State University; and Angelo Amador, Esq., Senior Vice President and Regulatory Counsel, National Restaurant Association. While some of the witnesses opposed a requirement to re-verify their current workforce, they were generally unconcerned about the current undocumented workforce of their member employers. 

The one witness who expressed opposition to mandatory E-verify was Chuck Conner, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Conner expressed opposition to mandatory E-verify in agriculture unless and until Congress passes a solution for the current undocumented farmworker population and a new agricultural guestworker program. Despite several attempts by Republican Representatives to lift up Rep. Goodlatte’s “Agricultural Guestworker Act” as a way forward for agriculture, Conner made clear that the bill is not a workable solution. Conner noted that Rep. Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act is not a solution for agriculture’s labor needs as it fails to address the current skilled undocumented workers—roughly 1.2 -1.4 million undocumented workers—already working in agriculture. Later, Conner said that he was not aware of any growers’ association that endorsed Rep. Goodlatte’s, “Agricultural Guestworker Act.” Conner’s lack of support for the Rep. Goodlatte’s “Agricultural Guestworker Act,” H.R. 1773, is not surprising as the bill is not only morally reprehensible as one of the worst guestworker bills in decades, but it also fails to provide a realistic solution for our broken immigration system. Instead of providing what this nation desperately needs, a comprehensive immigration solution, this bill would convert an entire industry into an army of guestworkers. Goodlatte’s bill sends the message to aspiring citizens that “we want your labor only, you and your family are not welcome here.” Despite this, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) stated for the record that the South Carolina Farm Bureau endorsed the bill. Conner’s organization, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives is part of the Agricultural Workforce Coalition, a large group of growers’ associations that supported the agricultural stakeholder agreement in the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill. 

Unfortunately, Conner also took the opportunity to criticize the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, claiming that the program is too dysfunctional and difficult to use for many farmers. The reality is that grower claims regarding the burdensome nature of the H-2A program are often really just complaints about DOL’s oversight and the modest wages and protections in the program. Despite complaints about the H-2A program, use of the H-2A program increased by over 140% recently, from about 48,000 worker positions certified in FY 2005 to about 117,000 worker positions certified in FY 2014. This rapid growth is alarming to worker advocates, in part because the program is used to displace the current domestic labor force. The -2A program facilitates discrimination by allowing employers to hire almost exclusively young men. Additionally, employers often prefer H-2A workers because they have more control over them than their domestic counterparts, who may request better pay or conditions or seek employment elsewhere. From the perspective of most farmworker advocates, the H-2A program protections are inadequate to protect workers and inadequately enforced. As a result, the program is rampant with abuse, as revealed in numerous exposés and our report, No Way to Treat a Guest: Why the H-2A Agricultural Visa Program Fails U.S. and Foreign Workers

Farmworker Justice submitted a statement for the record of the hearing explaining our opposition to a stand-alone mandatory E-verify bill and calling for comprehensive immigration reform. The broken immigration system inflicts harm on farmworkers, their family members, their communities, and the businesses that need their labor. While we look forward to the President’s deferred action program, which will potentially benefit hundreds of thousands of farmworkers, many other farmworkers will remain without work authorization and vulnerable to abuse. Mandatory E-verify would cause further harm in a workforce that already experiences high turn-over and poor wages and working conditions. 

Instead of further destabilizing the agricultural workforce through mandatory E-Verify, Congress should pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes an opportunity for undocumented farmworkers, their family members and the rest of the 11 million to obtain permanent immigration status and an opportunity for citizenship. Congress should also stop its attacks on President Obama’s executive actions to provide relief from deportation to many members of our communities, including those who came to the US as children and parents of US and LPR children. Immigrant farmworkers and other aspiring Americans deserve to be treated with respect and should be given the opportunity to earn immigration status and citizenship. Demands by some employer groups for exploitative guestworker programs should be rejected. Congress should pass immigration legislation that honors our history as a nation of immigrants.

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security held a hearing on “The Legal Workforce Act.” The hearing focused on Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) E-verify bill, titled “The Legal Workforce Act” filed in the last Congress. The bill would implement mandatory E-verify nationwide, without providing a path to citizenship for the current undocumented workforce or otherwise addressing the broken immigration system. Last Congress’s Legal Workforce Act, HR 1772, would have required that agriculture implement E-verify 24 months after the date of enactment, the latest of any industry.

The witnesses who testified in favor of mandatory E-verify were Randel K. Johnson, Senior Vice President, Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Jill G. Blitstein, Esq., International Employment Manager, Human Resources, North Carolina State University; and Angelo Amador, Esq., Senior Vice President and Regulatory Counsel, National Restaurant Association. While some of the witnesses opposed a requirement to re-verify their current workforce, they were generally unconcerned about the current undocumented workforce of their member employers. 

The one witness who expressed opposition to mandatory E-verify was Chuck Conner, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Conner expressed opposition to mandatory E-verify in agriculture unless and until Congress passes a solution for the current undocumented farmworker population and a new agricultural guestworker program. Despite several attempts by Republican Representatives to lift up Rep. Goodlatte’s “Agricultural Guestworker Act” as a way forward for agriculture, Conner made clear that the bill is not a workable solution. Conner noted that Rep. Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act is not a solution for agriculture’s labor needs as it fails to address the current skilled undocumented workers—roughly 1.2 -1.4 million undocumented workers—already working in agriculture. Later, Conner said that he was not aware of any growers’ association that endorsed Rep. Goodlatte’s, “Agricultural Guestworker Act.” Conner’s lack of support for the Rep. Goodlatte’s “Agricultural Guestworker Act,” H.R. 1773, is not surprising as the bill is not only morally reprehensible as one of the worst guestworker bills in decades, but it also fails to provide a realistic solution for our broken immigration system. Instead of providing what this nation desperately needs, a comprehensive immigration solution, this bill would convert an entire industry into an army of guestworkers. Goodlatte’s bill sends the message to aspiring citizens that “we want your labor only, you and your family are not welcome here.” Despite this, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) stated for the record that the South Carolina Farm Bureau endorsed the bill. Conner’s organization, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives is part of the Agricultural Workforce Coalition, a large group of growers’ associations that supported the agricultural stakeholder agreement in the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill. 

Unfortunately, Conner also took the opportunity to criticize the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, claiming that the program is too dysfunctional and difficult to use for many farmers. The reality is that grower claims regarding the burdensome nature of the H-2A program are often really just complaints about DOL’s oversight and the modest wages and protections in the program. Despite complaints about the H-2A program, use of the H-2A program increased by over 140% recently, from about 48,000 worker positions certified in FY 2005 to about 117,000 worker positions certified in FY 2014. This rapid growth is alarming to worker advocates, in part because the program is used to displace the current domestic labor force. The -2A program facilitates discrimination by allowing employers to hire almost exclusively young men. Additionally, employers often prefer H-2A workers because they have more control over them than their domestic counterparts, who may request better pay or conditions or seek employment elsewhere. From the perspective of most farmworker advocates, the H-2A program protections are inadequate to protect workers and inadequately enforced. As a result, the program is rampant with abuse, as revealed in numerous exposés and our report, No Way to Treat a Guest: Why the H-2A Agricultural Visa Program Fails U.S. and Foreign Workers

Farmworker Justice submitted a statement for the record of the hearing explaining our opposition to a stand-alone mandatory E-verify bill and calling for comprehensive immigration reform. The broken immigration system inflicts harm on farmworkers, their family members, their communities, and the businesses that need their labor. While we look forward to the President’s deferred action program, which will potentially benefit hundreds of thousands of farmworkers, many other farmworkers will remain without work authorization and vulnerable to abuse. Mandatory E-verify would cause further harm in a workforce that already experiences high turn-over and poor wages and working conditions. 

Instead of further destabilizing the agricultural workforce through mandatory E-Verify, Congress should pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes an opportunity for undocumented farmworkers, their family members and the rest of the 11 million to obtain permanent immigration status and an opportunity for citizenship. Congress should also stop its attacks on President Obama’s executive actions to provide relief from deportation to many members of our communities, including those who came to the US as children and parents of US and LPR children. Immigrant farmworkers and other aspiring Americans deserve to be treated with respect and should be given the opportunity to earn immigration status and citizenship. Demands by some employer groups for exploitative guestworker programs should be rejected. Congress should pass immigration legislation that honors our history as a nation of immigrants.