Immigration & agricultureAgriculture groups say bill would disrupt farming operations, decrease food production
The Legal Workforce Act(LWA — H.R. 1147), introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and approved this week by the House Judiciary Committee, could disrupt farming operations if it passes Congress. LWA requires employers in the United States, within three years, to use E-Verifyto verify whether employees are legally allowed to work in the country. Ag industry groups say that passing LWA without some sort of immigration reform for agricultural workers could lead to a $30 billion to $60 billion decrease in food production. The ag industry also notes that each of the two million hired farm employees supports two to three fulltime American jobs in the food processing, transportation, farm equipment, marketing, retail, and other sectors.
Many members of Congress are applauding the passage of legislation to fund DHS for the 2015 fiscal year without disrupting President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration as some Republican lawmakers sought to do, but the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the Agricultural Workforce Coalition (AWC) are concerned that another bill may negatively affect immigration.
H.R. 1147, introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and approved this week by the House Judiciary Committee, could disrupt farming operations if it passes Congress. The Legal Workforce Act (LWA) requires employers in the United States, within three years, to use E-Verify to verify whether employees are legally allowed to work in the country.
“The Legal Workforce Act turns off the jobs magnet that attracts so many illegal immigrants to the United States,” Smith said. “The bill expands the E-Verify system and applies it to all U.S. employers.”
An Office of Management and Budget directive mandates that all federal government agencies use E-Verify, but mandating the online-based system for the agriculture sector could reduce the number of U.S. farm workers. The two agricultural associations call on Congress to address comprehensive immigration reform before E-Verify is mandated. “Imposing mandatory E-verify without fixing our country’s broken immigration system will sound the death knell for thousands of farming operations across the country,” AWC wrote in a press statement Tuesday.
Farm Futures reports that the agriculture industry relies heavily on foreign-born workers, many of whom are undocumented. Without reforming current immigration policies, agricultural production will be limited.
“The economic impacts of this will spread far beyond the farm gate as Americans working in industry sectors both upstream and downstream of the farm will see their jobs threatened,” AWC wrote, citing studies that show “each of the two million hired farm employees supports two to three fulltime American jobs in the food processing, transportation, farm equipment, marketing, retail, and other sectors.”
AFBF labor specialist Kristi Boswell said the group can support E-verify and the LWA as long as work authorization for current workers is addressed and a new guest worker program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is considered. That program would allow employers to hire a year-round workforce and a seasonal workforce of foreign workers.
Passing the LWA without some sort of immigration reform for agricultural workers could lead to a $30 billion to $60 billion decrease in food production, Boswell said. “We ultimately need tandem legislation or an inclusion of an agricultural solution in that legislation for us to support it,” she said.
