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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 4/17/13
USA Farmers, Inc is encouraged by the recently negotiated framework and objectives of the agricultural component of the Senate immigration reform bill. As part of the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC), which brings together organizations representing the diverse needs of agricultural employers across the country, USA Farmers has been working with other agricultural groups throughout this process to ensure that immigration reform legislation addresses the labor issues faced by America’s farms.
“As a farmer who has been sitting at the negotiation table in the Senate, I have tried to bring the real-world experience of an agricultural employer into the discussions. And while the process has not been easy, we have made significant progress on an immigration framework that has the potential to provide America’s farmers and ranchers with access to a legal workforce,” says USA Farmers President Chalmers Carr.
USA Farmers appreciates the efforts of Senators Dianne Feinstein, Marco Rubio, Orrin Hatch and Michael Bennet for their help in fostering an agreement between agriculture employers and farm workers. We look forward to continuing to work with members of Congress to ensure that immigration reform effectively addresses the labor issues faced by America’s farms. For many farmers across the country, finding a sufficient number of workers to harvest crops or care for animals is the biggest challenge they face in running their businesses.
USA Farmers members are located in virtually every state in America and we are the only national organization dedicated to solely representing the interests of agricultural employers who utilize the current H-2A program to hire legal agricultural guestworkers. The current H-2A program is broken. It is unpredictable, overly bureaucratic and expensive—all of which limits participation by farmers.
USA Farmers supports an agricultural guestworker program that provides a predictable, efficient and affordable process for hiring and employing guestworkers when there are insufficient numbers of U.S. workers willing and able to fill our job openings.
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