The House of Representatives passed two immigration reform measures yesterday aimed at providing farm workers and others legal status and reforming the H-2A Program.

The more limited of the bills would allow for a path to citizenship for those that were brought here as minors. These are the so-called “DREAMERS”. This group has been able to work in this country for some time under an executive order in the Obama administration. President Trump tried several times to overturn the EO unsuccessfully. The Trump administration said that this was a job for the Congress, not the executive order.

The Dreamers have been working under what is referred to as “deferred action for childhood arrivals”. The bill would allow them to have a permanent status and a path to citizenship.

The second bill is the Farmworker Modernization Act (FWMA). This bill passed the House in December of 2019. The bill has significant reforms to the H-2A program and allows for those that have been working in the US illegally in agriculture to have a path to permanent status and possibly to citizenship. The bill isn’t without warts although many of the H-2A changes are things that agriculture has been working on for some time.

Several ag groups have supported the passage of the FWMA but many are on the sidelines until some changes can be discussed in the Senate including the American Farm Bureau.

Speaking of the Senate. We have been told that major immigration legislation will be passed out of the Senate but that’s not to say that these bills are dead. It will take some significant changes to get enough republicans to support the measures. We are monitoring these changes and since many of our members are now using the H-2A program, we are working with other commodity groups to protect our ability to have a reliable legal workforce going forward. Stay Tuned

DSF