Working to Keep Ag Jobs

Published September 01, 2011

David Kuack

Now that President Obama and Congress have worked out all the issues related to raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending, lawmakers can get down to business working on the "real" issues. In June, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced the Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2164). Smith contends the bill could open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans and legal immigrants. The legislation supposedly improves the federal E-Verify system and makes it mandatory for all U.S. employers.

According to the legislation, Smith said within the agriculture industry it requires that employees performing "agricultural labor or services" are only subject to an E-Verify check within 36 months of the date of hire. Under the bill, individuals engaged in seasonal agricultural employment are not considered new hires if the individuals start work with an employer for whom they have previously worked.

Impact on Ag
Members of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, which includes Society of American Florists and American Nursery & Landscape Association, are seeking to advise Congress of the "devastating impact" passage of the "Legal Workforce Act" would have on agriculture unless the bill is amended to include a workable agricultural labor program. In July a group of over 75 agricultural organizations, including SAF and ANLA, sent a letter to Smith regarding their concerns about the bill.

The letter aims to inform Smith of the dire consequences to the agriculture industry should Congress continue to pursue efforts to pass legal workforce legislation without including an agricultural worker program. The letter said "Mandatory E-Verify legislation for farmers threatens $5 to $9 billion in annual U.S. agricultural production. This is wealth...that will leave U.S. soil, be grown outside our country, then shipped to the U.S. by our competitors and sold to American consumers. But this is not all. When this U.S. production leaves, it puts at risk the two to three American jobs upstream and downstream of farm production that are supported by each farm worker. Thus, legislation mandating E-Verify for agriculture without provisions implementing an agricultural worker program will result in fewer U.S. jobs, a smaller U.S. agricultural sector, weaker rural communities, erosion of our nation's food security and a less vibrant economy."