The year 2010 will bring the AgJOBS bill sponsored by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein before Congress, which in turn will have a profound effect on the economy of the Central Coast—and in particular the coastal valleys such as the Salinas Valley and the Santa Maria Valley, where farmers harvest labor intensive crops. As we all know, if farming does well, so does the local economy.
Even if you do not directly work in agriculture, your livelihood is directly entwined with its success, so it is important that we all pull together to support this bill even if we might not agree with all its provisions. It is the only game in town, and its main thrust is good for us all.
The California Farm Bureau reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued another round of (I-9) audit notifications last month, bringing the total to about 2,000 for the year. It is seen as the beginning of even more audit activity in the coming year. But as the crackdown continues and pressure mounts, the major problem for farmers remains: They need a stable and reliable system to get large numbers of legal workers at critical times during the year. Currently, the government does not provide them with this necessity.
The current H-2A guest worker program allows farmers and ranchers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis with short term visas, but through the years it has proven to be useless. Its major flaws are a lack of affordable housing, ever escalating costs, and no reliability. Nothing can be worse than having a workforce show up weeks after you need to harvest or have other critical work done. The need for change and modification in this law is long past overdue.
First, the H-2A program under the AgJOBS bill as it is currently written would be modified to meet the needs of agriculture. If local workers cannot be found, then farmers and ranchers would have a legal, reliable, and timely path to hire foreign workers to harvest their crops.
Second, it would create a pilot program to identify undocumented farm workers and allow those already working in agriculture to continue for a five-year period if they pay a fine, show they are current on taxes, and have a clean criminal record. They would receive a blue card to stay in the country during this time period if they agree to work in agriculture during the five-year period.
The third major portion of this bill will undoubtedly generate the most controversy in that it allows blue card holders to apply after five years for a green card to become a permanent legal resident after paying a fine of $500. This portion of the proposed bill goes against the wishes of a majority of Americans. Polls in the United States show that citizens want their national sovereignty protected, that 77 percent of Americans feel that employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens should be punished, that 66 percent favor temporary workers be required to return home, and that 69 percent feel that illegal aliens should be prosecuted and deported. This backdrop of public opinion will make an uphill battle for this portion of the proposed law.
With or without the green card section of this bill, it is important to us that this proposal become law to protect our local economy. Despite controversial provisions of this proposed law, the main thrust of the bill will bring needed reform to an area of American law and life that has lacked cohesion and direction for many years and has led to many of our current immigration issues that we now face. It deserves our strong support because it will protect the main driving force of our local economy: farming! m
Ken McCalip is a North Santa Barbara County native who holds bachelor and doctorate degrees in history, cultural geography, and law from various California universities. Contact him at foxmt.one@verizon.net.
This article appears in Dec 24-31, 2009.