While most Americans agree the current immigration system is a mess, nobody advocates doing nothing. But nothing is exactly what we’ll get if the U.S. Senate fails to pass its immigration reform bill, SB 744. Without Senate action, America will be stuck with its broken immigration system for the next several years.
The Farm Bureau supports passage of the bill, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. Our country cannot afford to continue with an immigration system that requires employers to assume the role of government in trying to determine the birthplace of their employees.
To ensure consistent delivery of high-quality agriculture products, farmers must have a stable work force. Securing a reliable and skilled workforce is essential for agriculture and for all the U.S. jobs that depend on farm production. Jobs associated with handling and distributing agricultural commodities depend on workers planting and harvesting crops in the field.
For years, farmers have had difficulty finding workers. Farm jobs are physically demanding and often conducted in extreme weather, but many foreign workers see these jobs as opportunities.
Most Americans do not seek farm employment, but money is not the issue. The main factor is the seasonal and transitory nature of farm work. Most people do not want a job that only lasts six weeks. Even fewer people want to travel across the country picking fruits and vegetables in the hot sun all day. Ask yourself how much money it would take for you to enter such a career.
Current law provides a guest worker program, known as H-2A, which allows foreign workers to legally enter the U.S. to do farm work. Most Georgia H-2A users are larger farms. For a small farmer needing 50 workers for about a month, the H-2A program is too cumbersome and costly to be feasible.
For Georgia farmers, the labor shortage is real. A study released by the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development showed that Georgia growers of seven major fruit and vegetable crops lost an estimated $140 million due to the labor shortage in the spring and summer of 2011. These crops represented nearly half the acreage available for harvest that spring, and had a total farm gate value of more than $670 million.
SB 744 will meet the labor needs of farmers through a “blue card” proposal. Farm workers can apply for the card if they pay a fine, undergo background checks, and prove they have farm work experience. A blue card does not grant citizenship. It only allows the person to legally remain in the country to do farm work.
The Senate proposal also creates a new guest worker program to take the place of the current H-2A program. The new program is more streamlined so that more farmers can use it.
SB 744 is not perfect, but it is progress. America needs the Senate to pass this bill. The House of Representatives needs to pass a bill. Then, the two versions can go to conference in hopes of achieving actual reform.
Without Senate leadership, the process for reform in the near term will be stymied, no matter what happens in the House. If the Senate fails to act, the American people will keep the same flawed immigration policy we have right now. Nobody will be happy with that.
Zippy Duvall is president of the Georgia Farm Bureau.
