NAPLES (Florida) DAILY NEWS

July 10, 2010

POLL:  PUSH RESUMES FOR AGJOBS BILL TO ALLOW FARMWORKER ILLEGALS TO STAY

By TRACY X. MIGUEL

NAPLES — In the heat of immigration debate across the nation, growers and farmworker advocates are pressing for passage of the federal legislation known as Agjobs.

The bill, which has been on the brink of passage several times, continues to have widespread support from agricultural groups, farmworker advocates and religious organizations across the state.

Rob Williams, director of the Florida-based Migrant Farmworker Justice Project of Florida Legal Services, said the AgJobs bill would have strong impact in the state, the nation’s second­-largest agricultural economy, after California.

“Without farmworkers, Florida would lose billions of dollars,” said Williams, who represents The United Farm Workers Union, a union founded by Cesar Chavez.

The National Agricultural Workers Survey says about 65 percent of the people who pick U.S. crops are undocumented. Others in the industry say it’s closer to 70 percent.

“We know that by and large the oranges in Florida are picked by unauthorized workers,” said Williams, who lived in Immokalee for 19 years.

The AgJobs (Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act) bill would give temporary legal residence to about 1 million undocumented farm laborers in the nation and an estimated 100,000 of an estimated 135,000 to 150,000 farmworkers in the state, Williams said.

Applicants would have to prove they have worked a certain time in farm labor during the past two years.

In addition, they would have to pay $500 in fines for entering the country illegally and settle outstanding tax bills. Felons, or those with serious misdemeanor convictions, would be excluded.

“The idea here is to try to stabilize our workforce,” Williams said.

Another benefit, Williams said, is that the bill wouldn’t tie farmworkers to any particular employer.

“We want a legal workforce,” he said.

This effort, advocates said, would benefit both the growers, farmworkers and the public.

The AgJobs bill could be the beginning of farmworker reform, Williams said.

The bill developed through 10 years of ongoing negotiations among Democrats and Republicans, growers, farmers and farmworkers, has had broad support in both the House and the Senate.

But, it still has its share of opponents.

Because of the “gridlock” in the political system, Williams said, the bill hasn’t been passed.

While people are reacting emotionally and not seeing the connection that this has on them, Williams stressed that there has to be a solution.

“We are making people criminals whose only crime is that they are working to support their families,” Williams said. “There isn’t anybody out there that isn’t eating food that has been produced by these workers.”

Hugh Gramling, executive director of the Hillsborough-based Tampa Bay Wholesale Growers, echoed Williams.

The bill would provide a procedure where people could work in the U.S. legally without it being amnesty, Gramling said.

Paul Meador, a vice president for Everglades Harvesting & Hauling Inc., with operations in LaBelle, said his company gets most of its seasonal workers through the H-2A program annually to abide with the law, yet ensuring that they are legal is tough.

Gramling echoed Meador.

He wants the federal government to establish more efficient monitoring programs.

The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring non-immigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature, according to the U.S. Department of Labor website.

Although it’s an expensive process, Meador said, domestic residents aren’t interested in working in the fields.

Yet, there are several problems with the H-2A program.

Meador said the minimum wage of $9 an hour makes it challenging to compete in the global market. The average worker at Everglades Harvesting earns $10 to $12 an hour, he added.

Another problem with the current H-2A program, is the time that it takes to get the seasonal workers authorized to work.

“The last thing anybody wants to see is that all of our food is grown overseas,” Meador said, adding that he is concerned about eliminating the domestic food safety.

While the growers’ interests support immigrant labor, other businesses, including hospitality, dairy and the horse industry in the state, also use a lot of immigrant workers.

The horse industry in the state relies on immigrant help, said Dick Hancock, executive vice president of the Ocala-based Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.

Similar to farm work, Hancock said, the jobs in the horse industry aren’t the types of jobs that citizens, including those who are currently unemployed, want to do.

Over the past 20 years, the horse industry has relied on immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador.

While the industry requires documentation, Hancock said, it’s hard to determine a valid green card.

“The reality is that a lot of the employees are undocumented,” Hancock said. “There is no question that there needs to be some way to document them now and provide some avenue for citizenship or amnesty.”

If there is no change in the near future, Hancock said, farms would have to leave the U.S. and harvest the crops overseas, which would cost more.

“We are certainly in a crisis,” he said.

Hancock stressed that Congress should respond with some immigration reform to save the nation’s food crops.

What the bill provides, Hancock said, is for farms to get skilled employees with skilled experiences.

This has been going on for so many years.

“This bill could really go a long way in fixing our problem,” Hancock said.