02/22/05 AgJobs back for consideration

02/22/05 AgJobs back for consideration

The reason U.S. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho was among those who introduced the AgJobs bill last year was to strike a balance & a balance between national security and agricultural security. The aftermath of the 9-11 terrorists attack includes the strengthening of America's borders to illegal aliens, of which there is roughly between eight to twelve million. But of that number, approximately 1.6 million are employed as farm workers. That is a significant amount of labor, seventy per cent of the U.S. ag labor force to be precise, and according to Craig, it is labor that agriculture needs. CRAIG: What it tells me, someone who grew up in American agriculture, that agriculture as an economy is becoming increasingly fragile. It no longer has the strength or the dynamics that it once had. It grows increasingly dependant on the high costs of inputs. Energy. Equipment. Other supplies to produce the bounty of the American farm field. But one of those key inputs is labor. That is why Craig recently reintroduced the AgJobs bill in the Senate, a measure to improve the current H-2A guest worker program. Under the measure, undocumented farm workers who have worked for more than one hundred days in the U.S. since January First would be allowed to voluntarily come forward for a background check. Workers passing the check would be granted a temporary work visit, if they agree to work as farm laborers for three years. At the end of the three year period, workers in the AgJobs program would become eligible for permanent resident alien status. CRAIG: If in our effort to protect our borders and to create a law enforcement community that can apprehend an illegal person. If all of that happens and we don't create a system that stabilizes and provides a legal, foreign national work force, we could literally collapse American agriculture. Opponents to the bill contend AgJobs would give amnesty to illegal workers. But Craig says his bill gives those workers a measure of respect. CRAIG: To recognize it clearly the vast majority of them are here for peaceful purposes to better themselves and their families. And in the meantime, cause American agriculture to work as effectively and efficiently as it does. And often times, these men and women do work that American citizens simply will not do, but seeing it as an opportunity for themselves, and an opportunity for their children to have a better life.
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