Advocacy Action Center
By their nature, fresh fruits and vegetables are highly perishable and need to be harvested, packaged, and shipped in a timely manner. This is especially important in certain agricultural areas of the U.S. that have small windows of opportunity to harvest their crops due to the seasons. The industry relies on a strong workforce of both domestic and guest workers in order to gather produce from the fields; however, current U.S. guest worker programs do not sufficiently meet our industry’s needs.
PMA supports immigration reform, particularly the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security (AgJOBS) Act of 2005, S. 359 and H.R. 884. This issue is vitally important to everyone in the produce distribution chain because it will strengthen U.S. production, provide the necessary labor, and enhance national security.
AgJOBS provides a two-step approach to a stable, legal, safe, ag work force. First, it streamlines and expands the H-2A legal, temporary, guest worker program, and makes it more affordable so it will be used more. This is a longer-term solution, which will take time to implement. Second, outside the H-2A program, it provides a one-time adjustment to legal temporary status, after a thorough background check, for experienced farm workers already working in the United States, who currently lack legal documentation. These workers would be required to continue working in agriculture for at least 360 days over a three to six year period before becoming eligible to apply for permanent resident status.
If you have not yet contacted
your Representatives or Senators to ask their support of AgJOBS, you can
do so now via the PMA
Issue Action Center.