FAN Stands in Solidarity Against the Agricultural Guestworker Act

The Farmworker Advocacy Network is one of over 200 coalitions, groups, and organizations that have recently signed a letter* opposing Representative Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act, H.R. 1773, or the “Ag Act”. We believe this legislation could devastate our nation’s agricultural system and undermine core American values.

 As written in a recent FAN blog post, the Ag Act seeks to lower protections for farmworkers by stripping away decades of worker protections to leave guestworkers virtually no protection from abusive conditions. Employers will not need to verify adequate working conditions, wages or insurance coverage for injuries, thus eliminating oversight of worker’s rights. Additionally, guestworkers are offered no pathway to becoming permanent legal U.S. citizens. Instead they will be required to self-deport with the only the possibility of returning as a temporary guestworker. This would leave temporary workers in a highly vulnerable position to be exploited solely for their labor.

 As a coalition, we strongly oppose the Ag Act and believe it is an unworkable, anti-immigrant and anti- worker approach to our nation’s immigration problems. Hard-working farmworkers do not deserve to be relegated to a permanent 2nd class status apart from their families. As such, the Ag Act stands contrary to our nation’s core values of freedom, equality and family unity. Farmworkers have made invaluable contributions to our country, and they deserve protections that not only keep them safe but uphold their dignity as individuals and workers.

  View the letter opposing the Agricultural Guestworker Act

*This letter has already been sent to members of the House of Representatives, however individuals can still join FAN in saying "NO" to unfair and un-workable farmworker legislation by weighing-in with their members of Congress or by accessing the United Farm Workers action alert calling for immigration reform. 

Immigration Reform and Farmworkers

Last week, President Obama and members of Congress have been laying out their principles for comprehensive immigration reform. Millions of families' lives hang in the balance, including farmworkers across the country. Our food system relies heavily on an undocumented, marginalized workforce to provide the necessary labor for growing fruits and vegetables. It's vital that any serious reform include provisions for protecting all workers - including farmworkers - from discrimination and unfair treatment. Farmworkers should be included along with all other immigrants in the roadmap to citizenship. 

Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, made the following statement:

With the announcement yesterday of a bipartisan group of Senators and today’s speech by President Obama, momentum is building to pass immigration reform that includes a roadmap to citizenship.

Our nation depends on the hard labor of farmworkers to cultivate and harvest our crops. Meanwhile, the majority of these workers live in poverty, unable to afford the very fruits and vegetables they harvest. Immigration reform is desperately needed to empower farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions, as the majority lack immigration status.

Farmworker Justice welcomes the President’s commitment to passing immigration reform. We will encourage the President and Congress to promote immigration policies that enable current and future farmworkers to attain a roadmap to citizenship. To ensure fair treatment of farmworkers and our nation’s food security, we will continue to advocate for equal labor protections for farmworkers in any immigration reform.

California Wants to 'Decriminalize' Immigrant Farm Workers

Here's one model of worker protections for North Carolina's leaders to consider, since we rely so heavily on immigrant labor to make agriculture work in this state:

​The California Department of of Food and Agriculture calls for a sweeping effort to protect immigrant farm workers -- including those who traveled to the U.S. illegally -- in a new plan outlining the state's agricultural future.

The plan, called AgVision 2030, asserts that immigrant labor is vital to the state's farm economy and advocates a raft of immigrant-friendly policies -- including "decriminalization" of farm workers without proper immigration documents, increased access to health care and education for immigrants, and fewer immigration raids on farms.

The plan affirms a commonly held view among immigrant-rights advocates -- that migrant laborers, many of them from Mexico, do jobs that U.S. citizens are unwilling to do. 

"Coordinated efforts at recruiting domestic labor have largely failed, despite high unemployment in many agricultural communities," the plan states. "Thus, an estimated 75 percent of California's agricultural workforce is foreign-born, primarily Mexican, and about half of the workers are believed to be unauthorized under current immigration laws." The plan goes on to state that the H-2A temporary visa program for farm workers is "cumbersome and ineffective."

The plan urges state officials to support federal immigration reform and take measures to protect immigrants from current federal policies. Among the recommendations: state and local authorities not conduct immigration-related inspections of farm sites; enable immigrant farm workers to obtain driver's licenses or identification cards; and establish policies that prevent families from being broken up by deportations.

Continue reading at SF Weekly.