Free Immigrant Farm Workers From Fear: A broad-based national coalition of farm worker organizations, labor unions, agricultural employers, immigrant advocates, and supporters are urging the U.S. Congress to enact the historic AgJobs legislation. It would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.
What's At Stake: Unlike President Bush’s immigration “reform†plan, the AgJobs bill’s temporary immigration status would lead to permanent legal status and eventually citizenship for undocumented farm workers and their family members in this country.
Introduced by U.S. Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.), and U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R.-Utah) and Howard Berman (D.-Calif.), the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act (AgJobs) bill now has 51 cosponsors in the Senate, including 26 Republicans. It is the result of three years of careful negotiations between the Unite Farm Workers (UFW), grower representatives and members of Congress.
If enacted, the AgJobs bill will (1) create an “earned legalization†program enabling undocumented farm workers to earn legal permanent status if they have been working in the U.S. and continue to work in agriculture for a period of time; and (2) reform the existing agricultural guest worker program, the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.
Immigrant agricultural workers, who work in one of our country’s most dangerous and lowest paying occupations, will no longer need to live in fear of deportation for demanding better wages and working conditions or challenging illegal employment practices. Moreover, the immediate families of these workers, if living in the United States, will not be subject to deportation.
This compromise only applies to workers in the agricultural industry and does not address the needs of other undocumented workers. While this is a historic compromise, it is only the first step to broader reform of our current immigration system.
For more information visit: http://www.ufw.org/FWLegalization.htm
