The Immigration Policy and Enforcement Subcommittee of House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Thursday morning on the current agriculture guestworker program and proposed new programs.
American growers across the nation need to hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal agricultural workers each year to tend and harvest their crops. But problems with the current temporary agricultural work visa program are causing most growers to avoid using it altogether.
Of the issue, Chairman Elton Gallegly (R-CA) remarked, “If we are really going to help American growers in the long-term, we need to provide them a workable guestworker program that will help them hire a legal workforce. A new temporary agricultural work visa program must be responsive to the needs of American growers while maintaining strong safeguards to protect citizens and legal workers. We must also make necessary reforms to help ensure American growers hire a legal workforce without a fraud-ridden mass amnesty for illegal immigrant farm workers."