The amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois merely offers to make sure that the regulations are not made even more onerous than they already are now. which have already proven to be unworkable. With the adoption of the employer sanctions already in this bill. it is critical that we do not put those in the agricultural sector of our economy in a position of either having to violate the law consciously or going out of business if they are unable to find domestic workers to harvest the crops that feed the people of our country. I believe a streamlined H2 program would provide an opportunity to replace some of the dependency on undocumented workers that are beyond the protection presently of our labor laws. Unfortunately. a major deficiency of the amendment before us concerns the relegation of the Department of Agriculture to a minor role in a program that will have a major impact on the shape of our agricultural sector in the future. Under section 214(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. the amendment would. for all intents and purposes. exclude the Agriculture Department from consultation with the Attorney General as to the admission of temporary foreign agricultural workers. Instead. the amendment codifies the current practice which has resulted in sole reliance on the Department of Labor. While no one would deny the Department of Labor a consultative role. it is imperative that this body go on record to insure that the Agriculture Department will have a role in the process. not the only role. but a role which it presently is denied.
Keywords matched
Immigration undocumented