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UFW: Gutiérrez 'irreplaceable' on immigration reform
Story Date: 11/30/2017
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 11/29/17
Following the news that Rep. Luis Gutiérrez will not seek reelection, the United Farm Workers emphasized on Tuesday that losing the Illinois Democrat's voice in Congress will leave a major opening at the head of the campaign for immigration reform. Giev Kashkooli, political and legislative director of United Farm Workers, told Pro Ag's Sabrina Rodriguez that Gutiérrez is "irreplaceable."
"It will take a team of people to replace what he has meant as a leader," Kashkooli said. "The good news is there are several candidates to join that team who are prepared to fight for farm workers and immigrants."
A member of the House since 1993, Gutiérrez has met with farm workers across the country and listened to their needs, Kashkooli said. Gutiérrez said Tuesday that he will back Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, a Cook County commissioner and vocal advocate for immigrant rights, in the race to replace him.
Future of the "Blue Card" bill remains unclear: Gutiérrez's fight for farmworker rights was most recently apparent in the "Blue Card" farmworker immigration bill he sponsored in the House. The proposed measure, a companion to a bill Sen. Dianne Feinstein submitted in the upper chamber, would offer a so-called blue card - providing work authorization - to undocumented farmworkers who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 100 days in each of the previous two years. Thereafter, workers who maintain their blue card for three or five years, depending on hours worked, would be eligible for a green card or legal permanent residency.
UFW, AFL-CIO and more than 140 organizations - with interests ranging from labor to immigrant rights - penned a letter in September that called for Congress to back the blue card legislation. The groups urged lawmakers to "refocus on the one thing that could stabilize agriculture quickly: providing legal status for undocumented agricultural workers."
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