Washington D.C. – Last week, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) reintroduced the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act. This compromise legislation, carefully crafted in negotiations with agricultural workers and employers, would create a legal status for undocumented agricultural workers already living and working in the United States. This bipartisan legislation was passed by strong bipartisan margins in the U.S. House of Representatives in both the 116th and 117th Congress.
“Immigrant farm workers put food on America’s table every day,” said UFW President Teresa Romero. “While some Members of Congress are quick to serve the needs of agricultural employers, the reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act reminds us that any true and just effort at agricultural immigration reform must first do right by the immigrant workers who have been doing the hard work in the fields, farms, orchards, dairies, vineyards, and ranches of America for decades. If you feed America, you deserve the right to stay in America.”
“We are pleased to see the reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a bipartisan bill that would protect the most vulnerable and essential workers from the threat of deportation,” said UFW Foundation CEO Diana Tellefson Torres. “For the contributions that farm workers have made to the nation during the pandemic and beyond, we urge Congress to pass this legislation. America’s food security depends on professional farm workers.”