FOX: The House on Wednesday passed a contentious agricultural bill that would likely put more than a million illegal immigrants on a pathway to legal status as part of what supporters say is a vital modernization of the industry’s workforce — but that immigration hawks blasted as a “large-scale amnesty.”
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed 260-165, with support from both Democrats and Republicans. The bill provides a process for undocumented farmworkers to seek a temporary five-and-a-half-year “Certified Agricultural Worker” status if they have worked for approximately six months in the industry in the last two years.
That status can either be renewed indefinitely, or workers (along with their spouses and children) can begin a path to permanent legal status in the form of a green card. That path, according to the legislation, includes background checks and $1,000 fine.
To secure the green card, those who have worked in agriculture for 10 years or more must work for four more years, while those who’ve spent less than a decade in the sector would have to work eight more years. Once workers receive a green card, they are then free to pursue work in fields outside of agriculture.
The bill also streamlines the H-2A agriculture visa program, cutting processing time and costs for visa petitions. And it calls for the Department of Homeland Security to set up a pilot program that would give H-2A workers the ability to change jobs within the sector if they find work within two months. read more
“To secure the green card, those who have worked in agriculture for 10 years or more must work for four more years, while those who’ve spent less than a decade in the sector would have to work eight more years. Once workers receive a green card, they are then free to pursue work in fields outside of agriculture.”
From Wikipedia:
An indentured servant or indentured laborer is an employee (indenturee) within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a signed or forced contract (indenture) to work for a particular employer for a fixed time. … On completion of the contract, indentured servants were given their freedom, and occasionally plots of land.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Definition+of+indentured+servitude&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Leave it to the democrat controlled house to reinstate slavery. Look at the pictures that they use for the definition of indentured servitude. They are pictures of slaves on plantations.
No one seems to be addressing the welfare and other related issues that would be involved.
Any mention in the bill of a provision mandating Port-A-Johns for the workers to cut down on the level of excrement in the produce?
If you put the vagrant homeless drug addicts and the prison population to work on farms as indenture workers to pay off their vagrancy crimes, you won’t need this crap
Ah, yes…the old, faithful “crops are rotting in the field” bullshit. If agribusiness would mechanize the fields, instead of running migrant plantations, they wouldn’t have this labor problem. Swamping the manual labor market with illegals to drive wages down is unsustainable.
I know House made changes to USMCA before approving it – did they add crap like this that will sabotage it?
The finest crop fertilizer is legislators’ families. Wholesome. Biodegradable. Rich (not in nutrients, but in more important things). And, it conveniently fits in most chippers. Often without messy, and time consuming, preprocessing.
There was also a provision that limits the development of machine harvesting in order to force farmers to hire illegals rather than use machines.
“Certified Agricultural Worker”
More like, “Certified Catapult PAYLOAD.” 😡
My dad (A retired farmer) says that today, “Farmers farm the government first and the land second.”
The government hands out ten of thousands of dollars to large farmers. So they use that to buy more land, so the following year, the government gives them even more.
That is part of the reason small family farms are disappearing.
Not to worry. They’ll be dead in eight years from exposure to Roundup®. Win-Win.
Anon says, “There was also a provision that limits the development of machine harvesting in order to force farmers to hire illegals rather than use machines.” The more illegals, the more the profits for the wealthy.
This true. Union power is behind this amnesty which is obviously corrupt, as usual.
Watch: Amnesty Bill Blocks Labor-Saving Farm Machines
by NEIL MUNRO3 Dec 2019
“The Democrats’ amnesty bill also has the support of the United Farm Workers union (UFW), which represents illegal migrant farmworkers. The migrants work long hours, in the open, often for low pay.
But they harvest the crops with methods that have changed little in 10,000 years: Stooping to harvest crops, reaching upwards to pick fruit, and carrying simple tools to dig, weed, or prune. The crude methods are good enough for many farm companies that are under intense pressure to minimize near-term spending on payroll and investment in equipment.”
“Overseas, farm companies in Israel, Australia, Europe, and South America are investing in labor-saving machinery. Their investments in technology are reducing their need for farm workers and are helping them compete against American farmers.
If the Democrats’ “modernization act” amnesty becomes law, U.S. farm companies will have an unlimited supply of low-wage labor and, so, will face less pressure to keep up the pace with their foreign rivals’ technology.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/03/dems-farm-business-protect-illegal-immigrants-labor-saving-machines/
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