The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“The never-ending stream of divisive rhetoric around immigration and the southern border has long hindered comprehensive reform, as both Democrats and Republicans have made political hay out of a broken system. . . .
“Congress should focus on solutions that not only tackle the factors that draw people to cross the border illegally but also address the labor needs of the United States.
“One of those common-sense options is the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. It is the kind of clear-eyed, practical legislation that deserves attention.
“Proposed by U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the legislation passed the House in 2021 with bipartisan support but has so far stalled in the Senate.
“The act would give some immigrant workers without legal permission to be in the U.S. a path to legal status and streamline the visa-application process to make it easier for foreign workers to come here legally. It would also require employers to verify a worker’s identity and employment authorization.
“Most farmers would agree that the No. 1 issue they face is the lack of labor. Crops don’t harvest themselves,” Newhouse, the state’s former agriculture director, said in a news release. “This legislation would secure a legal, and reliable, workforce for all of agriculture.”
“Along with the impact on farm work and the nation’s food supply, labor shortages are a contributing factor to widespread inflation, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has called for an increase in legal immigration to help solve the problem.
“Chamber-proposed solutions include permanent legal protections for immigrants that now have Temporary Protected Status, agricultural workers and young immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents, known as Dreamers.
“This is not just big business looking for cheap labor. Polls have consistently shown that most Americans support legal immigration, yet elected representatives just as consistently have failed to enact comprehensive reform.
“The political realities ensure that will not change anytime soon, but the House’s bipartisan support of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act shows that modest steps are possible.
“This legislation is only a small piece of the larger immigration puzzle, but its positive impact on the lives of immigrants and the U.S. economy should push the Senate to ensure that it falls into place.” – Legal Immigration Reform Is the Key, Editorial, The Seattle Times, 5/29/22 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: Despite the concerted efforts of its sponsors, it appears that the “Farm Workforce Modernization Act” will not pass the Senate during the current “lame duck” session. For this, our country can be thankful. Rarely has there been a more inappropriately named bill before the U.S. Congress. The bill would give legal residence and an eventual path to citizenship to illegal alien farmworkers. As many as 1.5 million might take up this offer.
This plan would hinder modernization by giving agribusiness an incentive to maintain a system based on low wages and backbreaking manual labor. Understandably, most Americans don’t want this kind of work—and neither do illegal aliens for any great length of time. The latter typically find less demanding work as soon as they can—which encourages more illegal immigration to fill their places. Over and over this cycle repeats itself.
Something that could help to break it is genuine modernization brought about by mechanization. Amazing advancements in robotics in recent years have made mechanization of planting and harvesting a viable option for many kinds of crops. A number of foreign countries are ahead of us in applying this kind of technology.
Unfortunately, agribusiness is a comfortable rut as it continues to rely on cheap exploitable labor. An obstacle to mechanization is high start-up costs for machinery. One remedy Congress might offer is generous tax credits for mechanizing farm work. To assist the transition further, our lawmakers might revamp existing guest worker programs, while setting a specific timetable for phasing them out. But above all else, Congress must not pass amnesties, a reward for illegal immigration which encourages more of it. Without a continuing supply of illegal aliens, agribusiness might finally have to bite the bullet and go modern with mechanization.