Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, it was no accident that when we finally won control of the border and cut the flow of low-wage labor, Americans saw the strongest wage growth in 40 years, the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, and the lowest poverty rate in 60 years. For the first time in decades, the wage gap between rich and poor narrowed.
Now, this bill extends amnesty, green cards, and a path to citizenship to somewhere between 1 and 2\1/2\ million illegal immigrants now working in agriculture and their families in a manner that will depress wages, not just in agriculture, but in every field of the economy for years to come.
Madam Speaker, if you obeyed the law and came here legally to work, then you cannot qualify as a certified agricultural worker. You must have come here illegally, and you must have worked here illegally for at least 1,035 hours in the last 2 years. That is about 13 40-hour workweeks a year. You get legal status for yourself and your family for the next 5\1/2\ years. You can get indefinite extensions as long as you work in agriculture 575 hours or about 14 weeks a year. If you do this for between 4 and 8 years and you get a green card, then your family gets green cards and you are on a 5-year path to citizenship. The green cards give you the right to work in direct competition with American workers in any sector of the economy.
Madam Speaker, let me emphasize that if you came here legally and worked the same hours, then you are out of luck. If you obeyed the laws, well, you are just a schmuck.
It utterly escapes me how America's working families are helped by flooding the labor market with millions of low-wage workers under this program. As these workers get green cards, they are sure to move from agriculture to high-paying jobs, ensuring a continuous need for new agricultural workers to replace them.
Between the two immigration bills today, somewhere north of 4 million illegal immigrants will qualify for amnesty, legal employment, and a path to citizenship as a reward for breaking our laws.
Is it any wonder that our Border Patrol is now completely overwhelmed as millions of economic refugees rush our border in expectation of the same rewards?
This bill would bring a tragic end to the blue-collar economic boom that President Trump proudly announced on this floor just a year ago. Here is the real tragedy: During the Trump blue-collar boom, the poorest Americans were making the greatest gains, and it is precisely these American families who will be the most harmed by these amnesty bills.
Trump had their back. Biden is on their backs.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Texas an additional 30 seconds.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hice).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I can assure the gentlewoman from Texas that we are outraged by the fact that this administration's policies and pronouncements have encouraged thousands upon thousands of children to be placed on that trail of terror in the hands of Mexican criminal cartels and brought here on the expectation of admission, an expectation that this administration is fulfilling.
I must also assure the gentlewoman that this certainly is an amnesty bill. It allows anyone who is here illegally, who can claim to have worked the equivalent of 13 40-hour weeks over 2 years, legal status, amnesty. The documentation can be as little as having a friend vouch for them.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Will the gentleman yield?
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Let me say that we can respect each other's differences, and I thank the gentleman for explaining that. Amnesty is not related to people working to earn their status, and that is what this bill does, just as the DACA bill does. They earn their status.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
This only applies to illegal aliens. If you are legally here, obeying our laws, you are out of luck with this bill. What this bill says is, if you are here illegally and can have a friend vouch for you that you worked 1,000 hours over the last 2 years in agriculture--again, that is the equivalent of 13 40-hour weeks--you get legal status.
This is one of the many reasons why we are seeing this response from around the world now flooding our southern border.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Spartz).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, no one disputes that this bill is a huge windfall to big agriculture. The problem is that it comes at the expense of American workers.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Will the gentleman yield?
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Not this session, no.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I would remind this Speaker that Cesar Chavez was one of the most outspoken adversaries to illegal immigration, precisely because he knew what that did to depress the wages of the legal immigrants that he represented through the United Farm Workers.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), the ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I would just point out, the last 30 seconds was on the time of the gentleman from New York. I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach).
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, may I inquire of my friend from California if she has any additional speakers?
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Just yesterday, the Secretary of Homeland Security told the Homeland Security Committee that the border is secure. The Secretary said the border is secure, despite saying only 1 day earlier that the Department of Homeland Security is on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years.
He said the border is secure, despite a 590 percent increase in the number of family units crossing the border in the first 6 weeks of the Biden administration.
He said the border is secure, despite Customs and Border Protection referring over 7,300 unaccompanied alien minors to the Department of Health and Human Services during the month of February. That is the highest number of referrals in any February in the history of the program.
He said the border is secure despite the Biden administration's plan to use the Dallas Convention Center to house thousands of the unaccompanied minors who the cartels have smuggled across the border.
No matter what Secretary Mayorkas says, the fact is the border is not secure, and it is not secure because of President Biden's dangerous immigration policies.
We know that when foreign nationals think they can easily get into the U.S. and be rewarded with legal status, which is what this bill does, they flood the border.
We are watching that happen before our eyes. Aliens are flooding the border in response to the President's rhetoric and policies and in response to the promises of additional rewards made through bills like this.
Talk of amnesty fuels border crossings. That is a fact.
This bill grants amnesty and a special path to U.S. citizenship to at least 1 million farmworkers currently in the United States. I have seen estimates that go up to 2\1/2\ million--nobody really knows--as well as to their spouses and children.
This bill allows aliens to get green cards even if they illegally reentered the U.S., committed immigration fraud, voted illegally in a Federal or State election, or have two serious misdemeanor convictions.
The supporters of this bill claim that illegal aliens who get green cards must work in agriculture. However, the bill includes broad waiver authority that allows those who did not complete all the work requirements because of weather conditions or COVID or if the alien was fired, among other situations, to still get a green card.
Those legalized under this bill would, from the outset, compete directly for jobs with Americans. Nothing in this bill prevents those who get employment authorization during the initial process from working in nonagricultural labor sectors. And of course, once they and their family members get a green card, as provided under this legislation, they are free to work wherever they want.
This bill sends a powerful message and an invitation to those who cross our borders illegally that they can expect to be rewarded with legal status and, ultimately, green cards and an expedited path to citizenship.
But far worse than that, it floods our market with low-wage labor at a time when Americans are struggling to recover from the devastating lockdowns that have crushed the dreams of so many working families.
I will end as I began. The people who were most helped by the economic expansion that we saw were working-class Americans because the Trump administration got control of our borders and stemmed the flow of this illegal labor.
They made the greatest gains during the expansion; they have been the most harmed during the lockdowns; and this adds to their burdens and woes by ensuring that the market for their skills and labor will remain stagnant for a decade to come.
Please don't do this to those good Americans in this perilous time for our country.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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