Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 233, I call up the bill (H.R. 1603) to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for terms and conditions for nonimmigrant workers performing agricultural labor or services, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. NADLER. 1603.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021 addresses an issue of critical national importance: the growing labor challenges that are damaging the American agriculture sector.
Solving this issue is paramount to the sustainability of American farming. It is also a matter of food security, and thus, national security. As domestic food outputs decline, we have become more dependent on food imports and more vulnerable to food contamination. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these vulnerabilities as travel restrictions impacted our food supply chain, and over 500,000 farmworkers tested positive for the virus.
With fewer U.S. workers turning to agricultural work as their chosen pursuit, most of today's hired farm laborers are foreign-born. Unfortunately, our immigration laws have not been updated to reflect the needs of our 21st century economy.
As a result of these outdated laws, undocumented workers now comprise about half of the U.S. workforce. But they are living and working in a state of uncertainty and fear, which contributes to the destabilization of farms across the Nation.
H.R. 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, addresses these challenges head on. The bill provides temporary status to current farmworkers with an optional path to a green card for those who continue to work in agriculture. The bill also addresses the Nation's future labor needs by modernizing the H-2A temporary visa program, while ensuring fair wages and workplace conditions for all farmworkers.
This is a bipartisan, balanced solution, one that we should all be able to get behind. It is a victory for farmers who have struggled with persistent labor shortages for decades.
It is also a victory for farmworkers who have worked tirelessly in the field growing and harvesting food without proper labor protections or any guarantee that they can remain in this country. No acceptable solution can fail to deal with this reality. That is why H.R. 1603 is the right solution.
Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will vote today in favor of providing a seat at America's table for those who have long grown the food we serve on it.
Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, Ms. Lofgren of California, the chair of the Immigration Subcommittee, for her leadership and steadfast commitment to the bipartisan process that led to today's vote on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support our farmers and our farmworkers by supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stanton).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, as I stood on the floor of the House for H.R. 6, this is not amnesty. I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) for her leadership, and Mr. Nadler as well.
Madam Speaker, let me explain to you that under the American Dream and Promise Act, which immigrants are eligible for, they would have 43,500 homes and $340 million in mortgage payments.
Today, I rise in support of H.R. 1603 because this would allow farmworkers, agricultural workers, to be able to gain legal status and to be able to seek a certified agricultural worker status.
Dr. Ruiz, our colleague, indicated that he was raised by farmworkers. He saw the bent hands, the bent banks, and the broken hands, and he saw the patriotism. This is not amnesty. I will tell you what it is not. It is not the Trump policy of caging children in cages. It is not the Trump policy of turning young 11-year-olds back across the border to be raped.
I hope my colleagues who are talking about abortion and talking about rape voted for the Violence Again Women Act to really protect immigrant women.
I rise to support this legislation because it will provide dignity, opportunity for an enhanced economic engine, as the farmworkers take certified status because they can do it over and over again.
Where is the bread on our table coming from?
The hardworking farmworkers who are out there every day in these fields working to provide for the American people and the people around the world.
We are the breadbasket of the world and, because of their work, we are able to feed many. So I rise in enthusiastic support. I wish my colleagues would have been as enthusiastic and as angry about caging children as they are today about us fixing the immigration system.
Madam Speaker, I ask for support of H.R. 1603.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1603, the bipartisan ``Farm Workforce Modernization Act,'' which will stabilize the agricultural sector and preserve our rural heritage by ensuring that farmers can meet their labor needs well into the future.
First, the bill establishes a program for agricultural workers in the United States (and their spouses and minor children) to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment.
Specifically, the bill creates a process for farm workers to seek Certified Agricultural Worker status, a temporary status for those who have worked at least 180 days in agriculture over the prior 2-year period.
Certified Agricultural Worker status can be renewed indefinitely with continued farm work (at least 100 days per year).
Applicants must undergo background checks and pass strict criminal and national security bars.
Dependent status is available for spouses and minor children.
The bill does not require workers to do or apply for anything else in order to stay and work in the United States.
But long-term workers who want to stay have the option of earning a path to lawful permanent residence by paying a $1,000 fine and engaging additional agricultural work, as follows:
1. Workers with 10 years of agricultural work prior to the date of enactment must complete 4 additional years of such work.
2. Workers with less than 10 years of agricultural work prior to the date of enactment must complete 8 additional years of such work.
The Farmworkers Movement in this country was started and led by a great leader, Cesar Chavez who said:
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.
The Texas Farm Workers Union (``TFWU'') was established by Antonio Orendain and farmworker leaders of the Rio Grande Valley active with the United Farm Workers (UFW) after a disagreement with UFW leadership over direction of a melon strike in south McAllen, TX in 1975.
In August 1975, nearly ten years after he began organizing farm workers for the United Farm Workers in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
Antonio Orendain worked for Cesar Chavez in the Chicago UFW national grape and lettuce boycott office.
Farmworkers undertake some of the toughest jobs in America.
They have earned the opportunity to build their lives without the fear of being uprooted from their families and their communities.
The bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act empowers the economic and physical well-being of immigrant families while providing much- needed labor security for our nation's farms.
The agricultural industry relies on the labor of 2.4 million farmworkers--about half of whom are undocumented.
This bill would protect thousands of families from deportation.
This is a big step in making our immigration system more humane and more efficient.
I know the farming and agricultural communities in the state of Texas farm and my district borders communities that farm.
What we are doing here is the right thing and attempting to reinforce the breadbasket that the United States happens to be to the world.
I have heard the clamoring of farm workers for a very long time but I have also heard the need for fairness and the improvement of conditions that they are working in with adequate compensation.
This bill regularizes people who want to be regularized and who want to contribute to helping the agricultural industry in this great nation.
I would like to thank my Judiciary Committee colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and in particular, Chairman Nadler and Subcommittee Chairwoman Lofgren, for their work in shepherding this important legislation to the floor.
I am reminded of our tenure here on the Judiciary Committee and our record of being fair and bipartisan on immigration reform for at least 2 decades.
I urge all members to join me in voting for H.R. 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Simpson).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Panetta).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ruiz).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).
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