Source: PRESS RELEASE, 2/10/14
 

“Gauging the Farm Sector’s Sensitivity to Immigration Reform"

Prepared by: World Agricultural Economic & Environmental Services
Commissioned by: American Farm Bureau Federation

The farm sector’s heavy dependence on undocumented workers in its hired farm workforce makes agriculture particularly sensitive to the changes possible with immigration reform depending on the nature and extent of the reform. This report describes the extent of the farm sector’s dependence on undocumented workers and the political, economic, and social forces that shaped this growing dependence since the last major reform effort in late 1980s as well as the possible consequences of reform during the 2013/14 Congressional legislative cycle.

The report draws on the current debate to identify three generic reform alternatives emphasizing: 1). enforcement only; 2). enforcement plus a pathway to legalization; and 3). enforcement plus a pathway to legalization and a guest worker program for sectors with special labor needs such as agriculture. The extensive survey information available on the sector’s hired farm work force and use of undocumented workers are then used here to develop commodity-specific estimates of hired labor costs for each of the reform alternatives. WAEES’s World Agricultural Modeling System is then used to translate these scenario-specific estimates of changes in farm labor costs into estimates of changes in farm output, commodity prices, farm income, farm asset values, and food prices using No-Reform Baseline Projections to 2020 as a reference point.

To read the full report, click here.