PALM BEACH POST

November 19, 2006

Farmworkers bill's chances better with new Congress

By John Lantigua

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Attorney Greg Schell, who has struggled more than two decades to improve the lives of the state's farmworkers, envisions a new dawn over the fields of Florida.

"This could change the world," he says.

Schell is speaking of the Democratic Party reclaiming Congress and what it could mean to key immigration legislation blocked for years by conservative GOP leaders in Washington.

The legislation would legalize undocumented farm workers, who make up at least 75 percent of the agricultural workforce already in Florida. Counting spouses and minor children, passage could add several hundred thousand new legal residents to the state over the next five years, all of whom might become citizens within 10 years.

Those workers would no longer be forced to cross treacherous desert borders, risking their lives, to reach Florida's tomato patches and citrus groves. Once legal, they would be better able to defend themselves against economic exploitation, physical abuse, dangerous work conditions and forced labor by criminal agricultural contractors.

For Florida's growers, who strongly support such legislation, it would mean a stable, experienced workforce. And none too soon.

'We need these people'

Some growers say increased federal vigilance at the Mexican border and around the country could leave them without the workers they need to complete harvests next year. Crops could rot on the vine, as they have in other parts of the U.S.

"It's extremely important for us," says Walter Cates, labor relations director for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, which represents growers throughout the state.

"Americans don't raise their kids to pick tomatoes or beans these days," Cates says. "We need these people."

The legislative vehicle backed by both worker advocates and employers is a bill popularly called "Ag Jobs."

It is expected to come before the new Congress next year. Some supporters hold out the slim hope it might even be addressed during lame duck session in December.

Ag Jobs is not a sure thing, but most interested parties believe it stands a much greater chance of passage now that Democrats have majorities in both Houses.

The new law would allow as many as 1.5 million undocumented farm and livestock workers nationwide to apply for legal status. It is estimated that 100,000-120,000 of those applications would be filed in Florida.

Under provisions of the law, spouses and minor children would also become legal, and that could multiply the original number an estimated 2 to 3 times.

The legislation comes with a detailed list of requirements and obligations:

•To qualify, a worker must prove that he or she worked 150 days, or 863 hours, in agriculture in the two-year period between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2005. Pay stubs will be used by some, but since many farm workers hire out under assumed names because they are illegal, affidavits from employers or labor contractors may be necessary.

•Once accepted, the worker receives a "blue card." The laborer must then work 150 days in agriculture per year for the next three years, at which point he or she becomes eligible for a green card and permanent resident status. Five years after getting a green card, an immigrant can apply for citizenship.

A candidate also can work 100 days per year over five years and qualify. Proof of serious injury or pregnancy would allow the qualifying period to be extended by one year.

•Before receiving a blue card, a worker must pay a $100 fine for having illegally entered the country. Before receiving a green card, a worker must settle a $400 fine. Those provisions are included to assuage conservatives who have opposed an outright amnesty.

•Blue card holders must prove they have paid their taxes.

They do not qualify for food stamps or welfare, although they are entitled to unemployment benefits. Because growers already pay into the unemployment reserve, no additional taxpayer money will go toward those payments.

The many farmworkers who live below the poverty line will also qualify for the federal earned income tax credit.

•Any worker convicted of a felony is ineligible for a blue card. A misdemeanor causing physical injury or $500 or more in property damage also disqualifies an applicant.

The provision requiring that workers continue to labor in agriculture is the heart of the bill. In 1986, about 1.2 million undocumented persons took advantage of an amnesty - 105,000 in Florida. Many of them left agricultural jobs soon after they became legal.

Because many of the present workers also eventually will leave field work, the new legislation is seen as a stop-gap measure good for the next five to 10 years. Many experts think the only long-term solution to the shortage of labor in agriculture will be a "guest worker" program. Foreign laborers, contracted for specific work, would return to their countries afterward, with no claim on U.S. residence.

Across the U.S. today, about 1.8 million people do crop work, according to federal figures, and about 1.2 million of those are believed to be illegal.

About 750,000 work with livestock, and it is estimated that half of those are illegal. Florida, home to about 200 dairies and many horse farms, should see a large number of applications from those work places.

"Based on the numbers from 1986, we figure a total of about 1.1 to 1.2 million will apply nationwide," said Rob Williams, Schell's partner at Florida's Migrant Farmworker Justice Project.

Williams says the Ag Jobs bill already has the needed 60 votes to pass in the Senate and should still have that number or more when the new Senate convenes.

He believes the bill also has the necessary votes in the House. It was held up during the past several years, in part, because Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana, chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, are hardliners on immigration and blocked the bill from coming before their committees.

Hostettler lost his bid for reelection. With the Democratic victory in the House, Sensenbrenner will no longer chair the judiciary committee and serve as its gatekeeper.

Bush would sign bill

Another obstacle was House majority whip Tom DeLay of Texas, who was forced to resign earlier this year due to a money-laundering scandal.

The Democrats who will assume the relevant chairmanships are mostly strong supporters of Ag Jobs, in particular incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and prospective House Immigration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of California.

"We were close to getting it passed by a Republican Senate and House," says Laura Capps, spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a sponsor of the bill. "With the new alignment in the Congress, we feel pretty good about it."

President Bush has generally backed immigration reform, despite opposition from the more conservative lawmakers in his party.

"We've been told he would sign it if it passes," Williams says.

One issue is whether Congress will be is willing to pass Ag Jobs on its own, or insist on it being part of comprehensive immigration reform.

That would involve all the undocumented individuals in the U.S., thought to number at least 12 million, and it would take longer.

Craig Regelbrugge, a spokesman for the American Nursery & Landscape Association, which also strongly backs Ag Jobs, is pushing members of Congress to pass the bill now and deal with the larger problem later.

"We're telling them that there is only one way to eat an elephant," he says. "A little bit at a time."