KEY VOTE “NO” on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 1603)

This week, the House will vote on H.R. 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. While many Americans acknowledge our immigration system needs to be reformed to ensure it meets the needs of U.S. interests, this proposal is not only not a solution, it is a step in the wrong direction. For starters, this bill would grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants without doing anything to reform our broken immigration system.

This bill would ultimately provide amnesty by creating a new “certified agricultural worker” status for which only illegal immigrant agricultural workers would be eligible. To qualify for this new status, individuals must be here illegally, as the bill states eligible aliens must be “inadmissible or deportable from the United States on the date of the introduction of this Act.” Furthermore, once this status has been granted to an individual, their children and spouses can then be granted “certified agricultural dependent” status leading to an exponentially larger population of illegal immigrants being granted amnesty.

After being granted the “certified agricultural worker” status, these individuals and their families would then have the opportunity to become lawful permanent residents, which in turn would afford them a pathway to citizenship.

Proposing amnesty, particularly of this magnitude, while the country is amid an illegal immigration crisis, is an insult to all Americans. Amnesty rewards those who have broken the law by offering them a pathway to legal status and citizenship and should always be opposed. This proposal is particularly egregious as it puts those who came here illegally on a pathway to citizenship that isn’t even afforded to those who came here legally.

According to The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow in Agricultural Policy, Daren Bakst:

The sheer scope of this proposed amnesty would be massive. According to the latest National Agricultural Worker Survey data (fiscal years 2015-16), an astonishing 49 percent of farmworkers are illegally in the United States. Some estimates are as high as 70 percent. The total number of illegal immigrants working in agriculture is not clear, but it is likely at least 1.5 million people and possibly much higher.

The legislation would therefore be granting amnesty to millions of workers, and that does not even include their spouses and children. Also, as many of these agricultural workers move to lawful permanent resident status and then to citizenship, there is no reason to think they would simply continue to work as farmworkers. This amnesty plan, which allegedly exists in part to help farmers with their labor needs, would likely have a limited short-term benefit to farmers as existing workers move off the farm. This movement away from the farm is precisely what happened when the United States granted amnesty to over 1 million agricultural workers in 1986.

In passing this legislation, Congress would be piling on to the Biden administration’s dubious immigration orders and send a clear message—there is little reason for would-be immigrants to follow our immigration laws. Rather than granting amnesty, Congress should pursue real reforms that move our immigration system towards a merit-based system that does not reward or incentivize law-breaking.