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S. 2087, The Agricultural Workforce and Employment Protection Act by U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss
Preventing illegal immigration and gaining greater control of our borders must include accountability in the hiring of legal workers. Agriculture has traditionally been the gateway for immigration to the United States, and historically, farmers across the nation have relied on a seasonal workforce. As many farming operations have modernized and diversified to year-round work, the current avenue for agricultural employers to obtain legal temporary workers – from the H-2A program – has not been able to accommodate the needs of all of America’s farmers. Not only does the current program exclude certain ag sectors and other occupations – like dairy farmers and meat, poultry, seafood, and fiber processors and packers – it is costly, litigious, and difficult for many employers to navigate.
Senator Chambliss’ measure would provide much needed reform and increased accessibility to the present H-2A program by broadening eligibility requirements and streamlining the process for obtaining temporary agricultural workers. Chambliss’ measure would:
- Provide a mechanism for addressing the presence of undocumented agricultural workers in the United States without creating a potential work stoppage on our nation’s farms and without providing a new path to citizenship;
- Ensure stringent protections for American workers are in place;
- Crack down on employers who hire illegal workers. If Congress provides employers with a viable migrant worker program to obtain a reliable legal workforce, we should not tolerate and hold accountable employers who hire illegal aliens. Employers who knowingly violate the law by hiring unauthorized workers are hampering America’s efforts to secure the border;
- Require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide each H2A worker with a tamper and counterfeit-proof document with biometric identifiers and requires the H2A employer to verify the work authorization of all domestic workers;
- Ensure that foreign workers’ ties to their country of nationality remain strong, mandates limits to a foreign worker’s continuous stay in the US without returning to his/her country of nationality for specified periods, but allows employers to extend work periods as necessary to ensure that crops are planted, cultivated and harvested in a timely manner; and
- Require the US Department of Labor to increase the number of random audits and investigations of program users to ensure compliance with US workplace laws and regulations.
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Immigration - Since September 11, 2001, the Administration has continued making strides to strengthen our homeland security. Over 1,000 new Border Patrol agents have been added. The Department of Homeland Security has consolidated customs agents and immigration personnel to enhance and streamline our border security. The entry-exit system, US-VISIT, is now collecting biometric information for aliens traveling to the U.S. on a visa. Even with our best efforts, illegal immigration remains a vast problem that is getting more and more out of control. Illegal entry into the U.S. is a security breach that we must address.
Senator Chambliss believes we need a total overhaul of our immigration policies. This overhaul should meet our national security needs and our economic interests and be a manageable policy for how many people we admit into the U.S. The logical place to start is with reform of the H2A agricultural worker program. According to Senator Chambliss, “Farmers in my home state of Georgia who use the H2A program tell me it is too burdensome and uncompetitive to use. Too often farmers are not able to get through the bureaucratic channels in time to harvest their crops. The arcane Adverse Effect Wage Rate and labor regulations can make it more cost effective to hire illegal workers rather than legal ones. And farmers who use the legal program are often the subject of frivolous lawsuits. These are some of the problems we must avoid as we reform and improve our immigration policies.”
Senator Chambliss believes we must adhere to the following concepts:
To control illegal immigration, we must first control our borders. We must commit to sufficient funding for our border security agencies, including Border Patrol, and our immigration enforcement agencies.
We must treat those who are here illegally as exactly that. Under a guest worker program, they should be allowed work visas not green cards. They should not be given advantages over those who are attempting to come to the U.S. through the legal process, which we should encourage.
Foreign workers in a guest worker program must be temporary workers.
Guest worker participants must have a job, and we must ensure that American workers are not displaced.
Guest worker legislation should make use of program aspects that do work well, including H2A and H1B visa programs.
We must dedicate resources for interior enforcement and strengthen the penalties against aliens in the U.S. who are not guest workers and who continue in their illegal status.
Employers must share the burden to facilitate a workable program and to stop the hiring of illegal aliens.
No one in the U.S. illegally should have the privileges associated with those who are here legally.
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