PASCO — About 300 people gathered in Pasco’s Volunteer Park on Saturday to send Congress a message — pass immigration reform this year.
Members of the United Farm Workers shivered in the blustery weather while holding signs reading "Immigration Reform Now" and "Keep Families Together."
"That’s the most important thing — the families," said Elvia Cervantes of Pasco.
Cervantes is not a union member, but said she has relatives whose 18-year-old daughter was deported to Mexico alone.
The only way she’ll be able to return is if Congress adopts a bill proposed by the United Farm Workers that would put undocumented workers on a track toward becoming legal workers and eventually United States citizens, Cervantes said.
Job Pozos, regional director for the farm workers union, said the bill was drafted in collaboration with agricultural producers to benefit seasonal farm workers and the employers who rely upon them.
The Agriculture Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act of 2009, also know as AgJOBS, would provide temporary immigration status for experienced farm workers who must continue to work in agriculture to move toward permanent residency and citizenship.
Pozos said the idea is to prevent people from switching to some other kind of job once they’re granted immigration status.
The program would be capped at 1.35 million workers, and eligibility would be limited to those who can prove they’ve worked in agriculture for at least 150 days or 863 hours in the past two years, according to the union’s website.
The workers would have to stay employed in agriculture for at least 100 days per year for the next five years, or 150 days per year for the next three years.
Another component of the proposed law would quicken the government’s processing of H2-A visas for foreign seasonal or temporary workers, temporarily freeze wage standards at the 2008 level, and change the rules for when employers must pay for housing and transportation for H2-A workers.
Pozos said getting workers documented under the proposed program would reduce the number of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in turn would reduce the number of broken families with parents deported but children who remain in the United States.
"It benefits both sides — the workers and the growers here who need the labor pool," Pozos said. "These are jobs average people don’t want to do. … We don’t see (Americans) flooding these industries trying to get a job."
House and Senate versions of the bill were referred to committees in mid-2009 but never moved any further through Congress.