The AgJOBS Bill: Compromise Legislation Could Help Bring Justice to Farmworkers

There is a growing crisis in the fields and furrows of America’s farming industry: an estimated 50-80 percent of agricultural workers in the United States are undocumented immigrants laboring without worker protections or a chance to improve their status. The current visa program only allows 42,000 people to legally enter the U.S. each year, a number which, when contrasted with 1.6 million workers employed by the farming community in the states (81 percent of whom are foreign-born)1, indicates one of the reasons for illegal employment — there are simply not enough legal avenues to meet the need for labor.

Farmworkers, especially those who are undocumented, are subject to difficult and dangerous working conditions, inhumane hours, exceedingly low pay without benefits, poor housing, and no right to unionize. There is currently no path to legitimacy of status, and therefore there is no way out of the exploitative situation in which undocumented persons live. Some Washington-based advocates have argued that the AgJOBs bill, an historic compromise between farmworker advocates, lawmakers, and agricultural employers, offers a viable first step in the long journey to compre- hensive immigration reform.

The AgJOBs Bill

S1645 and HR 3142, the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003, propose expansion of the H2-A visa program for agricultural workers and provide a path to legalization for currently undocumented farmworkers. The changes proposed by AgJOBs would help to improve the lives of those undocumented persons who fuel the U.S. agricultural industry, but the bill does not serve as an adequate answer to the problem of a broken immigration system, nor would it completely transform the reality of extensive worker exploitation. It is important to take an evenhanded approach to legislation that is the result of a compromise, such as AgJOBS, by noting both the positive and the negative aspects of the bill.

The earned adjustment clause allows persons who can prove that they have lived and worked in the U.S. for at least 100 days in the last year to gain Temporary Resident status immediately, and Permanent Resident status after 3-6 more years of farm labor. In order to facilitate the reunion of families who have been separated by immigration laws, Temporary/Permanent Resident status would also be extended to spouses and children of laborers, though they would not qualify for employment when classified as Temporary Residents. Keeping families together and enabling reunification of immigrant families is a stated priority in PC(USA) policy2; the inclusion of the possibility of earned adjustment for spouses and children in the AgJOBs bill is one of the strongest points of the legislation.

The AgJOBs bill would change the H2-A visa program to make it easier and faster for employers to hire immigrant workers, and would enable H2-A visa holders to sue their employers if rights violations occur. Further, since the H2-A visa program does not allow minimum wage, but instead relies on the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR), the AEWR would be frozen at 2002 levels — in many states several dollars higher than minimum wage — for three years, while Congress studies the program.

One cause for concern within the bill is the lack of portability, or the inability to change employers. Workers who are brought to the U.S. or legalized through the AgJOBs bill will be tied to their sponsoring employer for their first three years in the U.S. (visa holders can seek additional work, so long as they fulfill the requirement with their employer-sponsor within 3-6 years). This opens the window for exploitation, as the future of workers’ immigration status lies in the hands of their employers. While legitimizing the status of previously undocumented immigrants will equip them with the capability to address unfair labor practices, the inability to change employers without jeopardizing that status will, potentially, perpetuate the current injustices in the U.S. agricultural industry.

While it is a step in the right direction, the AgJOBs bill should not be considered immigration reform. Simply expanding and streamlining the H2-A visa system is inadequate in terms of increasing worker protections, ensuring the rights of portability and unionization, and does not extend the possibility of gaining legal status to the thousands of non-agricultural undocumented workers who currently reside in the U.S. While extending Temporary, then Permanent Resident status, to those workers who were previously undocumented will empower the newly legalized persons to speak out against employers who violate standards of worker rights, by no means does it preclude exploitation nor will it ensure that working conditions will improve.

S 1645, sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), with 55 co-sponsors in the Senate, the AgJOBs bill is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The farmworker justice and religious communities are calling for the bill to be brought to the floor this month. HR 3142, sponsored by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) with 94 co-sponsors in the House, has been languishing in the House subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims since October.

Action

PC(USA) advocates should seek to discern if the positive aspects of the AgJOBS bill outweigh its shortcomings. If you choose to support S 1645 or HR 3142, call your Members of Congress and ask them to co-sponsor the legislation. If they are already co-sponsors, thank them for their work for farmworker justice, and ask them to make sure the bill is brought to the floor during the month of April.

CALL the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator or Representative. If you choose to send a letter, please send it to your Member of Congress ’s district office, as mail to Washington is still subject to a lengthy screening process.

Talking Points

AgJOBs is a bipartisan compromise between farmworker organizations, labor unions, large agribusiness, immigrant groups, and many others. With 55 co-sponsors in the Senate and 94 in the House, many advocates believe it offers the most viable and widely supported step towards real immigration reform currently in Congress, making it the best solution possible this legislative year, albeit a compromise on certain issues. It revises the current H2-A visa system, making it easier for employers to obtain legal immigrant workers, and provides a path to legalization for workers who are currently undocumented.

Any step forward in the process of immigration reform should strive to strengthen workers’ rights (including the right to change employers and the right to unionize), enable family unity, provide a clear path to legalization, and increase labor protections. Passage of the AgJOBs bill should be considered a small part of the greater process of immigration reform.

Start a dialogue or bible study at your church to discuss issues of justice, right to work, and uplifting the poor. Study guides are available in the PC(USA) Christian and Citizen Election Year packet, and from the National Farmworker Ministry’s Web site.

Pray for all people who must endure unfair and inhumane working conditions. Put your faith into action and join PC(USA), the National Council of Churches, and others in boycotting Taco Bell. Yum Corporation, Taco Bell’ s parent company, buys tomatoes from suppliers in Florida who refuse to pay their workers a living wage — boycotting the Bell is a clear and simple way to express your solidarity with those laborers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

General Assembly Policy

1954 Statement - PCUSA, p. 196

We call for (1) individual Christians and local churches to show Christian concern as neighbors and employers of migrants in their vicinities; and (2) we urge state and federal governments to work toward adequate legislation to provide for the needs of these workers in a Christian manner.

1963 Statement - UPCUSA, p. 221

[The General Assembly adopted a policy statement that began]:

‘[F] Following the crops’ is not a satisfactory way of life. . . . The supply of migratory workers should be reduced to a minimum by the elimination of the economic and social misfortunes which cause people to migrate.

1969 Statement - UPCUSA, p. 673

The 191st General Assembly (1969) reaffirms its position on collective bargaining rights for all people not covered by existing laws.

This Assembly urges the United Presbyterian Church to support, as a matter of conscience and witness, the demands of farm workers for bargaining rights and legislative protection.

1985 Statement - PC(USA), p. 550

. . . [Therefore], the 197th General Assembly (1985) . . . expressed its disapproval of the use of [the concept of] “sharecropping” to exclude farm workers from the protection of child labor, minimum wage, and workers’ compensation laws as guaranteed by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

1990 Statement - PC(USA), p. 520

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

. . . While it is clear that the United States is undergoing profound change, including economic restructuring and an expansion of cultural identity, it is equally clear that blaming immigrants for the problems brought on by change is contrary to our best ideals. It is time to move back to a posture of hospitality, generosity, and fairness.

A. That the 202nd General Assembly (1990), in recognizing the special claim that immigrants make on Christian conscience and the contributions they make to U.S. society, take the following actions:

[1] b. Reaffirm the following principles, which are part of past General Assembly actions, as the basis for evaluating the [Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986] IRCA and advocating changes in U.S. immigration policy. Any immigration policy must

(1) provide for the human needs of refugees and immigrants;

(2) assure non-discriminatory humanitarian aid and application of laws and policies;

(3) uphold full constitutional and civil rights for refugees and immigrants as well as U.S. citizens;

(4) protect the lives of persons;

(5) give special consideration to the needs of women, children, individuals with special needs, and the unification of families;

(6) insure provision of adequate resources, as needed, to communities in order to reduce possibilities of conflict between immigrant groups and racial/ethnic U.S. citizens; and

(7) combat vigorously any expression of racism either in policies or the implementation of them.

C. Affirms that a just and compassionate U.S. immigration policy must also:

(1) recognize that a sovereign nation has a legitimate need to regulate immigration;

(2) uphold international standards and accords regarding protection to refugees and persons in refugee-like situations;

(3) affirm, in concert with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment”;

(4) address the U.S. economic, political, and military policies that may contribute to conditions compelling human displacement and migration; and

(5) require that, as a goal of alleviating the root causes of migration, the consideration of human displacemen t be an essential part of shaping U.S. foreign policies.

2. That [the General Assembly] regarding pubic policy concerns:

a. advocate for the repeal of employer sanctions as a provision of immigration legislation.

b. calls upon the administration to provide comparable legal residency status to immediate family members of amnesty applicants granted temporary residency in order to ensure family unity, in accord with the congressional intent of IRCA;

c. call for an updated amnesty program with a more recent cutoff date to provide for legalization of undocumented immigrants established in the U.S. who were unable to benefit from the limited legalization provisions in IRCA; . .