BNA DAILY LABOR REPORT

Thursday, June 9, 2005

 
Immigration
Sen. Craig Seeks New Vehicle for AgJobs;
Farmworker Coalition to Push for Measure
By Fawn H. Johnson

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is looking for another opportunity to offer
on the Senate floor a bill (S. 359) that would allow some 500,000
undocumented farmworkers to earn legal status in the United States, an
aide told BNA at a June 8 press conference sponsored by farmworker
advocates.
The bill, dubbed "AgJobs," also would streamline the Labor Department's
H-2A guestworker program, which allows employers to bring foreign
workers into the country for seasonal, agricultural jobs.

"Given the proper setting, I think we can pass AgJobs," Craig said at
the press conference. He predicted that broader immigration proposals,
such as a bill (S. 1033) recently introduced by Sens. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), would "stumble along for another
year or two."

At the same time, the United States is increasingly becoming dependent
on foreign agricultural producers, Craig said. The AgJobs bill
"recognizes the importance of stabilizing and legalizing a workforce
that is so necessary," he said.

The AgJobs bill received 53 'Yes' votes on the Senate floor in April
when the Senate was debating an unrelated spending bill on Iraq (75 DLR
AA-1, 4/20/05  ). The majority vote was not enough to reach a 60-vote
threshold needed to waive a parliamentary motion against the bill,
however.

According to Craig, the April vote on the AgJobs bill was largely
considered a test vote on the Senate's willingness to consider broader
immigration proposals. "The vote on AgJobs demonstrated that this bill
remains the only legislative proposal, to date, that enjoys a clear
majority of support in the Senate and a chance of becoming law," he said
in a written statement.

Craig will face an uphill battle in winning another floor vote on his
AgJobs bill. It took him several years of tireless lobbying to get a
first vote on it, even though the measure had 63 co-sponsors in the
previous Congress. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has
consistently said he wants to address immigration policy in a
comprehensive manner later this year.

Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen.
Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who chairs a Republican caucus on immigration, are
opposed to Craig's bill. Cornyn has said repeatedly that he would prefer
all immigration proposals to first be considered in committee before
moving to the floor.


Coalition Focuses on Farmworkers' Unique Problems

The National Farmworker Alliance, a coalition of 19 organizations
advocating for AgJobs and services for migrant farmworkers, plans to
encourage lawmakers engaged in the broader debate on immigration policy
to include provisions in the AgJobs bill.
"We need both," said Michelle Waslin, immigration policy research
director at the National Council of La Raza. "It's not one or the
other." Waslin said some farmworkers who currently work illegally in the
United States would not be eligible to sign up for the new guestworker
program proposed by McCain and Kennedy. Moreover, she said, the bill
does not include provisions that would make the H-2A guestworker program
easier for employers to use

Under the McCain/Kennedy proposal, Waslin said, undocumented workers who
are in the United States would be required to show proof that they have
been working continuously in the country in order to sign up for the
guestworker program. Producing that type of documentation can be
difficult for farmworkers, who work in seasonal jobs that sometimes last
less than two weeks, she said.

"We are trying to bring to the attention of the public the people who
harvest our fruit and vegetables," said Farmworker Justice Fund
Executive Director Bruce Goldstein.

To accomplish this goal, Enedelia Cisneros, a migrant farmworker, also
appeared at the press conference. She described 10-hour to 12-hour
workdays that start at 5:30 a.m. and the difficulties she faces in
educating her teenage son because her family spends the year in multiple
locations.

The coalition, which includes farmworker advocates, organized labor, and
education and housing advocacy organizations, also is calling for
bolstering government services for migrant farmworkers, including job
training services for migrant and seasonal workers that the Bush
administration has proposed to cut.

The coalition does not include agricultural employers, but the American
Nursery and Landscaping Association's Craig Regelbrugge, who was at the
press conference, told BNA that ACIR will work closely with the
farmworker coalition on AgJobs and other aspects of its agenda.
Regelbrugge co-chairs the employer-based Agricultural Coalition for
Immigration Reform.