Guest worker legislation heads for House vote
During his visit to a conference in Albuquerque in September, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue pitched the expansion of a guest worker program as a solution to the nation’s problem with illegal immigration.
Many agriculture producers across the country are facing a shortage of workers. Perdue said that’s one of the challenges facing the Trump administration’s effort to clamp down on the flow of migrants coming across the border with Mexico.
“The benefits are that it is absolutely needed,” the secretary said of expanding the guest worker program. “We know the demographics of our farm workforce out here. … The majority are foreign-born. There are jobs our domestic workers just don’t want any longer. People have trouble tracking domestic workers in the agriculture sector, pretty much no matter where you are in the country.”
Rep. Xochitl Torres Small is one of the sponsors of legislation that would do just that. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act moved forward from the House Judiciary Committee last week and will be up for a full House vote.
“I’ve heard from dairy owners and pecan and chile farmers across the district that our state’s agriculture industry needs a reliable and legal workforce,” Torres Small said.
She said the legislation would make the current H2A guest worker program more flexible.
“It would make available yearround employment,” she told the Journal, which she said would benefit agriculture industries
that depend on more than just seasonal workers.
“It would establish a program that would help agriculture workers gain legal status, and a pathway to citizenship under some circumstances,” Torres Small said.
She said the legislation would establish a mandatory, nationwide E-Verify system for all agricultural employment with a structured phase-in and guaranteed due process for authorized workers who are incorrectly rejected by the system.
“The legislation responds to frustrations (of agriculture
producers) by creating a userfriendly, employment-based program that meets the needs of a 21st-century agricultural economy and provides opportunity for people who want to follow our laws, work hard, and contribute to our economy,” she said. BILLS ON MISSING, MURDERED
NATIVE WOMEN: Two bills addressing the issue of missing and murdered Native American women cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and are now up for a vote on the Senate floor.
The two bills, Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act of 2019, passed the committee by voice vote.
“The missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis is appalling and demands the attention of Congress and the entire nation,” said Sen. Tom Udall, vice chairman of the committee. “Native women and families have waited too long for justice. Native women deserve prompt and thorough action to address these horrifying crimes. Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act are important first steps to make sure that Native women receive the justice they are entitled to, while making Native communities stronger and safer in the process.”
Savanna’s Act would require the Department of Justice to provide training for law enforcement on how to record tribal enrollment information of victims in federal databases. It would mandate that the attorney general must consult with tribes on how to improve federal databases in light of the crisis. It would require the creation of regional guidelines that federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies can use to improve response to cases of missing and murdered women. It would require the DOJ to include data on missing and murdered women in an annual report to Congress.
The Not Invisible Act of 2019 would require the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs-Office of Justice Services to designate a point person to coordinate violent crime prevention efforts in native communities across all relevant federal agencies. It would direct DOI and DOJ to establish a commission composed of relevant federal agencies, tribal leaders, survivors, impacted families and other stakeholders to develop recommendations on improving the federal response.
Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., was a sponsor of the legislation in the House.