Our View: Reforming US immigration system is long overdue
House Republicans, including Kern's Republican Rep. David Valadao, and Democrats have introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act for the fourth time in as many Congresses. Earlier bills passed the House on a bipartisan vote only to be defeated in the Senate.
With the goal of stabilizing the agricultural workforce by reforming the H2A agricultural worker visa program, the FWMA also would provide a path to legalization for undocumented workers currently living in the United States.
It would allow farmworkers to seek 'certified agricultural status' — a temporary status for those who have worked at least 180 days in agriculture over the last two years. That would allow workers to apply for a green card contingent on additional years of work in agriculture.
People with 10 years of agricultural work prior to the date of enactment would be required to complete four additional years of such work. Workers with less than 10 years would have to complete eight additional years. After completion of those requirements and with a green card in hand, workers could apply for the naturalization process.
Acknowledging the bill has a long-shot chance at passing, Valadao told The Californian, 'I just want something that works for agriculture and that works for the people who work in agriculture.'
Repeatedly, immigration reform has been derailed by raw politics. One party wants reforms, while the other wants to use the nation's failed immigration system as a hammer.
Last year, the U.S. came close to reforming immigration policy with a bipartisan bill negotiated by conservative Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona. Before the bill's release, it faced strong opposition from then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who had made immigration a top campaign issue. Republican support quickly disappeared. Only four Republican senators, including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had delegated Lankford to negotiate the bill, voted for it.
A group of about 100 Oklahoma GOP leaders condemned Lankford for his efforts and a popular conservative political commentator threatened to destroy him if immigration reformed passed during the presidential election.
Although the bill contained many provisions desired by Republicans — such as building more border wall, hiring more Border Patrol agents, expanding detention capacity and speeding deportation — it was 'dead on arrival' in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Conceding the political climate remains 'complicated,' Valadao said about this year's bill, 'One of the things I've heard for a long time is when the border is secure, we can then have the conversation about resolving programs like the guest worker program. So, I do believe there's an opportunity.'
Legalization and an option for citizenship has earned the FWMA the endorsement of the United Farmworkers union, which in the past has opposed expansion of the H2A program.
'Across the country, immigrant farmworkers are going to work every day to feed America,' UFW President Teresa Romero said in a news release. 'Yet these same workers are all too often afraid of getting deported simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
A UFW spokesman noted that it is the height of hypocrisy that during the COVID-19 pandemic, farmworkers were designated 'essential,' while they were denied the ability to just exist legally in our society.
'We have failed as a federal government, Congress and the White House. For decades, we haven't been able to have a system that worked,' said Valadao. 'We've created a system that has helped people, or encouraged people to essentially break our laws and live here for 20 years in the shadows. And now we're just supposed to tell them never, ever can they come back?'
Adoption of a reasonable and fair immigration policy is long overdue. The first step begins with setting aside xenophobic political posturing and passing the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
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