Immigrant Farmworker Legislation (AgJOBS)

Overview: The “Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2007” (AgJOBS), H.R. 371/S. 340, is the result of several years of negotiations between key farmworker advocates, particularly the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), and the agriculture industry. NCLR believes that the AgJOBS bill represents the first real opportunity to improve conditions for farmworkers in many years, and strongly supports AgJOBS.

The AgJOBS bill has two components. First, the bill would create an earned adjustment program for undocumented farmworkers who would be eligible to apply for temporary immigration status based on their past work experience, and who could adjust to permanent resident status upon satisfaction of the program's prospective agricultural work requirement. The spouse and minor children may adjust to permanent resident status once the farmworker does so. Second, the bill would reform the existing H-2A foreign agricultural guestworker program by reducing much of the “red tape” of which farm employers have long complained, while at the same time preserving and enhancing key labor protections for the guestworkers. For the first time, H-2A workers who are abused and cheated by their employers will have recourse to the federal courts and will have a remedy if they are threatened, blacklisted, or otherwise discriminated against by their employer for exercising their rights under the law. The bill has broad bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

AgJOBS was passed as part of the Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2006. NCLR advocates that it be included in this year's comprehensive immigration reform bills.

NCLR works closely with Farmworker Justice www.farmworkerjustice.org, an organization created to protect the rights of farmworkers in the U.S.

All Content © 2008 NCLR. All Rights Reserved