Leaders in Florida and U.S. Agriculture Back Immigration Reform
LAKELAND | Leaders in the Florida and U.S. agriculture communities have thrown their weight behind passage of an immigration reform bill introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate by eight sponsors, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
"We believe agriculture is going to be a key to passing broad-based immigration reform," said Mike Stuart, CEO of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association in Maitland, the industry’s trade group, during a Washington press conference hours after the bill was filed. "This issue — having a stable, reliable workforce — is the kind of issue that keeps (Florida growers) up at night."
The bill also has the full support of the United Farmworkers Union and its parent organization, the AFL-CIO, said Arturo Rodriguez, the union president who also spoke at the news conference.
Stuart joined other members of the Agriculture Workforce Coalition, which represents U.S. farmers and other agricultural employers, who negotiated a major section of the proposed immigration bill that will affect some 2 million farmworkers, most of them residing in this country illegally.
Those negotiations included Rodriguez and four senators in the "Gang of Eight" who sponsored the immigration reform measure. The four are Rubio and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, both Republicans, and Sens. Michael Bennett of Colorado and Dianne Feinstein of California, both Democrats.
The proposal would set up a procedure to give agricultural workers currently here illegally — estimated between 1.2 million and 1.5 million people — an opportunity to become legal residents and eventually citizens. It would also set up a new guest worker program that would allow agricultural employers to bring in another 336,999 foreign workers and possibly more.
The bill would give agricultural workers a quicker path to citizenship than other kinds of workers.
Agricultural workers would be given a one-year period after enactment of the bill and subsequent federal regulations to apply for a "blue card" that would make them legal residents.
To obtain a blue card, they must document at least 575 hours of employment or 100 work days during two years ending Dec. 31, 2012, according to the bill. The spouse and children of the worker also would be covered.
Applicants also would have to pay $100, prove they’ve paid all taxes and cannot have a criminal record. Blue cards would be available only for eight years.
The blue card would allow the holder to work legally in the U.S. but only in agriculture jobs, which would include crop cultivation, dairy, livestock operations and forestry. Holders could travel outside the country for up to six months but could not receive some federal benefits, such as food stamps.
A big question is how many of the more than 1 million illegal agriculture workers would apply for and be found eligible for the blue cards, Stuart and other coalition members said.
Rodriguez estimated most would get blue cards.
Agriculture workers would become eligible for a green card, or permanent U.S. residence, after working 100 days annually over the following five years or more than 150 days annually over three years. They would have to pay a $400 fee and be subject to the same restrictions under the blue card, such as a clean criminal record.
Green card holders can apply for citizenship after five years. They must meet other requirements, such as demonstrating language proficiency and civic knowledge, to become citizens.
The path to citizenship for agriculture workers contrasts with all other illegal residents, who could apply for "registered provisional immigrant (RPI)" status if they can prove continuous U.S. residence before Dec. 31, 2011, pass a background check and pay a $500 fee.
People under RPI status would be allowed to work in the U.S. and travel outside the country for a limited time, but they would have to wait 10 years to apply for a green card.
The proposed bill also includes a "Dream Act" provision for people brought to the U.S. illegally before age 16 by their parents. They could apply for a green card after five years and would then become immediately eligible for citizenship.
The bill also overhauls the current agricultural guest worker program known as H-2A, which U.S. agriculture officials have long criticized as cumbersome and expensive.
"I could tell you many horror stories from apple growers who have experienced H-2A," said Nancy Foster, CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, at the Washington press conference.
The new program to be implemented by 2016 would create two classifications of guest workers — at-will employees who can work for several agricultural employers during the three-year visa period or contract workers bound to one employer for a specified time.
Only 112,133 guest worker visas can be issued annually during the first three years, and the number would be capped at 336,999 visas for the first five years.
However, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture can increase the number of those visas during that initial five years, and the secretary would have the authority to determine the cap afterward.
Agriculture employers wanted the flexibility because of the uncertainty over how many current workers would apply for and get blue cards, Stuart said.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson indicated he would support the immigration reform bill in a Wednesday email to The Ledger.
"This bill appears to be a good compromise," Nelson said. "I agree with its basic provisions that anyone who is already here must follow the rules, pay taxes, learn English and go to the end of the line to have a shot at citizenship."
[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980. Read more on Florida citrus on his Facebook page, Florida Citrus Witness, http://bit.ly/baxWuU. ]