House passes 2 immigration bills
Provides legal status for undocumented farm workers, DREAMERS a path to citizenship
Brian Reeves, a fruit and vegetable farmer in Baldwinsville, N.Y., remembers hoping that President Bill Clinton would reform the immigration system to help agriculture workers in his final days in office in 2001. That was 20 years ago and Reeves is still waiting.
Reeves is now pinning his hopes on a bipartisan bill, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, that allows thousands of undocumented farm workers a path to legal status and cleared the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday.
While President Joe Biden struggles with a huge influx of migrants and children at the U.S. southern border, the House passed two immigration bills — one aimed at farm workers and another bill that would provide a path to citizenship to hundreds of thousands of people who came to the U.S. illegally as children with their parents, also known as DREAMERS, as well as other immigrants with protected statuses.
The bipartisan votes on both bills demonstrated some appetite for collaboration on immigration, even while Republicans apply pressure and blame on the Biden administration for the situation at the border. It’s unclear whether either bill can pass the U.S. Senate, where 10 Republicans votes would be needed to head it to the president’s desk.
Championed by Reps. Antonio Delgado, D-rhinebeck, and Elise Stefanik, R-schuylerville, as well as many other lawmakers, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House 247 to 174 Thursday.
The bill, if it passes, could mean new access to immigration visas for the workers at the more than 4,000 New York dairy farms. It could offer a more stable workforce to seasonal agriculture in the state, such as the apple orchards and vegetable growers, its proponents say. It would require farms to participate in a system to verify their employees’ immigration status.
“North Country farmers have long suffered from an unstable workforce and constant demand for labor,” said Stefanik, who voted against the DREAMERS bill. “The Farm Workforce Modernization Act addresses this reality by reforming the broken H-2A program, while ensuring job security for American workers and stability for our nation’s food supply.”
A possible boon for New York’s roughly 28,000 DREAMERS, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 also cleared the House 228 to 197 Thursday.
House Republicans offered a similar, but alternative proposal Wednesday that would increase funding for enhanced border security, protect DREAMERS, offer a 10-year path to a renewable legal status for undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes and expanding visas for agricultural workers.
House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy, Rcalif., who visited the border earlier this week, tagged the situation there the “Biden border crisis” and claimed it started on Jan. 20, with more migrants deciding to try a crossing believing Biden to be more willing to let them in.
Border crossings have increased from January to February 2021, Biden administration officials acknowledged Thursday, with over 100,000 people attempting to enter the country over the southern border last month. Unaccompanied children and teens are coming to the border in larger numbers than previously.
The number of people trying to cross the border has dramatically climbed over the past several months since a low in April 2020, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. While the February 2021 numbers represent a surge in crossings, more migrants were apprehended at the border in March through June 2019 than last month, data shows.
Biden officials disputed the notion that the border is “open,” saying they are turning away adults and the majority of families in continuation of policies put in place by President Donald Trump during the pandemic.
They are permitting unaccompanied children to enter the country, where they are staying in facilities run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those agencies are now caring for and processing over 14,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who officials said they hope will soon be connected with family and sponsors in the U.S.