On Wednesday, September 21st, the House Judiciary Committee approved Chair Lamar Smith’s (R.-Tex.) E-Verify legislation, the Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 2885, by a party-line vote of 22-13. The bill would require employers to use the E-Verify system to verify work authorization of new hires.
During the Committee mark-up, much discussion focused on the impact of the bill on agriculture, where more than one-half of farmworkers lack authorized immigration status. The E-Verify bill would push farmworkers further underground where they will likely be exploited. The bill would also increase the trend of growers using farm labor contractors to hire farmworkers and disclaiming any responsibility as an “employer” of the workers under immigration or labor law.
The E-Verify would do nothing to address the immigration status of more than one million undocumented farmworkers currently harvesting our fruits and vegetables – or the several million undocumented workers in other jobs. Both Rep. Smith and Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Cal.) have proposed massive, harsh guestworker programs.
While the United Farm Workers of America agree that it is not possible to replace the million unauthorized workers who currently work in agriculture with legal US workers; we strongly oppose a new guest worker program with little government oversight. Such proposals would not solve the problem of agriculture’s chronic labor market instability and will, in fact, only make matters worse. Both the Smith bill – the American Specialty Agricultural Act – and the Lungren bill – the Legal Agricultural Workforce Act – should be opposed.
Congress is expected to be in recess next week. The Republican leadership will be considering whether to bring the E-Verify bill to a vote on the House floor. Rep. Smith may also bring the American Specialty Agriculture Act, H.R. 2847, to a vote in the Judiciary Committee in October. Rep. Lungren will probably seek passage of his version of guestworker reform, Legal Agricultural Workforce Act, H.R. 2895, which several major agribusiness groups prefer over the Smith guestworker bill.