Growers of fruits and vegetables throughout this country have tried to meet their needs with domestic workers. They have been unsuccessful. even when wages reach $20.000 annually. As the domestic shortfall increased. the dependency on undocumented workers increased to a point where between 65 and 85 percent of the harvesting is done by undocumented workers. I daresay that in some instances that number could be as high as 100 percent. Farmers both small and large have insisted that if Congress is to reform the Immigration and Nationality Act. that we not lose sight of agricultures unique needs. In their view. and mine. the work of the Subcommittee on Immigration came close. but the final product is inadequate in both structure and content. The full Judiciary Committee markup of the bill. however. produced a number of substantial changes to section 211. the socalled H2 provisions. These political compromises. secured in order to expedite the bills progress. have destroyed the legislations balance and have insured that the proposed modifications to the H2 program will make it unworkable for nearly all of American agriculture.
Keywords matched
undocumented Immigration