Speech #990275868

This is a program where the U.S. Government sanctions bringing in foreign guest workers to harvest crops in certain parts of this country. particularly at this time in the Eastern United States. but in a program that has been utilized more and more in other parts of the country as well. Under that agreement a number of changes were made in the law. including changes sought passionately and through the immigration bill in both the other body and in the House version as introduced not only in this year but in the last session of Congress as well. changes to streamline the program. changes to bring in the Secretary of Agriculture. changes to alter different aspects of the protections now contained in regulations to protect those workers. Part and parcel of that agreement was an understanding that the H2 workers would be entitled if they otherwise qualified. and only if they otherwise qualified. to legal services representation. because without that. the protections contained for those workers. the housing protections. the domestic. the transportation of protections. the piecework rate and adverse impact wage rates protections become utterly meaningless. The fact is the history of the abuses in that H2 program. which has been documented time and time again. cannot be corrected without effective representation. as you could easily contemplate guest workers coming here for a short period of time. hoping to come back again. anxious to pick up a wage considerably higher than the wage they might be making in their own country. have no individual ability and no effective collective ability to enforce the protections that the U.S. law is supposed to guarantee them.