Newly elected President Joe Biden has proposed legal status and a pathway to citizenship for the thousands of undocumented farmworkers who are in the United States.
The estimated 1.25 million undocumented farmworkers would immediately gain legal status under the immigration reform bill unveiled Biden on his first day in office. If passed, the bill would make the farmworkers eligible for green cards and, after three years, open a pathway for becoming U.S. citizens.
Congress has struggled for years over immigration reform and Biden’s plan was quickly criticized by some Republican senators as unmerited amnesty. Democrats have slender majorities in the House and Senate, so there is little leeway for legislation without bipartisan backing.
The House passed a bipartisan farm labor bill on a strong 260-165 vote in December 2019, but it died in the Senate without a vote at the end of 2020. The House bill offered temporary legal status for undocumented immigrants who continued to work in agriculture as well as modernization of the H-2A visa for guestworkers, including permission for year-round agricultural employment.
“We are looking to work with Congress again in order to solve these longstanding problems for American agriculture,” said Chuck Conner, head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, which supported the 2019 bill.
At a time when the farm sector wants a legal and reliable workforce, half of farmworkers are believed to be undocumented. Ag employers say that the H-2A system needs to be streamlined so that it is easier to use and so that guestworkers, now limited to seasonal work, are available for year-round work, such as on dairies.
To qualify for legal status, farmworkers would have to pass criminal background checks and show they had worked in agriculture for at least 100 days in four of the preceding five years, said the United Farm Workers.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on social media that the immigration bill was “mass amnesty” for foreigners when “we should focus on helping Americans.” Other Republican senators, such as Marco Rubio of Florida and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, also were critical.