It is essential that such a proposal which protects agricultural labor needs to be included in the final language. In contrast. the Goodlatte amendment Is not adequate protection for the agricultural community. The Goodlatte language proposes to swap one bureaucracy for another by moving the H2A certification process from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice. Further. the Goodlatte amendment imposes an unrealistic cap of 100.000 annual admissions under the H2A program. As an example of this inadequacy. raisin growers In Fresno County employ nearly 51.000 agricultural workers between late August and late September each year. under the Goodlatte amendments cap. it any significant portion of these workers are found to be employment Ineligible by a verification system. or are Interdicted at the border or detected by border enforcement. it Is an open question whether there will be sufficient slots under the cap to meet the raisin producers needs at that point in the growing season. The Goodlatte amendment also proposes a significantly tighter threequarter guarantee than that currently applied to the H2A program. The amendment would mandate an 8hour workday. a requirement that would be impossible to meet on many days due to uncontrollable weather or crop conditions. Under the language of Goodlatte. If as few as onequarter of the workdays were not full 8hour workdays. the grower would be required to pay workers for periods of no work. regardless of how much work was provided on the remaining days. clearly unreasonable to the agriculture community. Mr. Speaker. amending H.R. 2202 with a workable temporary and season agricultural worker program Is essential to achieve true immigration reform. The end result of failure to provide a legal temporary alien worker program for U.S. agriculture will be to reduce U.S. farm production and agribusiness employment. The following agricultural organizations urge your support for the Pombo/Chambliss amendment.
Keywords matched
border enforcement H2A immigration