Mr. Speaker. during the course of hearings before the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International Law on HR. 3080. the subcommittee heard testimony from grower representa. tives and from the administration to the effect that there are not enough domestic farmworkers to harvest perishable crops in this country. and that as a part of immigration reform designed to protect domestic jobs. hundreds of thousands of temporary agricultural guestworkers must be admitted to the United States. This assertion regarding the unavailability of domestic farmworkers is the basis of proposals that we dramatically expand the size of the current H2 Program and weaken its protections for domestic workers. institute a transition program to warn growers from their dependence on undocumented workers. and that we. in effect. restore to public law the shameful bracero program. Today and in the coming weeks. I want to call to the attention of my colleagues a series of opinions issued by the Department of Labor that disproves the assertions of growers that domestic farmworkers are unavailable.
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