|
|
| AgJOBS Reintroduced in 2007 |
|
 |
|
|
You shall have one law
for the sojourner and for the native;
for I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 24:22
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TAKE ACTION:
No actions requested at this time. Please check back later. |
 Since it seems that Congress will not pass AgJOBS during the 2008 election year, the bill’s supporters have proposed The Emergency Agriculture Relief Act (EARA) as a temporary solution to address urgent needs in the fields. Senators Feinstein and Craig are committed to finding an opportunity to move the bill forward.
Like AgJOBS, the Emergency Relief Act has bi-partisan support. It would reform the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program (these reforms would supersede the Bush Administration’s pending plans to make anti-worker changes to the H-2A program regulations). The Act also would regularize the status of many farmworkers by providing a temporary resident status to qualified, law-abiding undocumented farmworkers as long as they continued to work in agriculture. Spouses and minor children also would receive a temporary status.
|
Joint farm worker-grower AgJOBS week
in DC a great success
 The AgJOBS week, October 1 - 5, brought together 100 farm workers from 8 states and 20 growers to meet with members of Congress and their aides about the urgency of providing a legal agricultural work force. The United Farm Worker Foundation organized the visits in collaboration with the UFW, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC); the Rural & Migrant Ministry - NY; PCUN (Oregon); ICAN (Idaho); CITA (NY); CATA (NJ/PA); Florida Association of Farmworkers; National Farm Worker Ministry; the Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform; and Farmworker Justice. NFWM coordinated housing and food for the week and photo by Jim Saah, Teamsters
received help from several congregations and many volunteers.
The farmworkers met personally with more than 100 senators and representatives and aides. Senator Ted Kennedy, and Representatives Howard Berman and Luis Gutierrez spoke to the whole group.
|
|
NFWM Response to Defeat of Comprehensive Immigration Reform
June 28, 2007
National Farm Worker Ministry has been working with farm worker groups nationwide for passage of the comprehensive immigration bill which included AgJOBS. Today, after fewer than 60 Senators voted for cloture on the comprehensive bill, it essentially died in the Senate. It is generally felt that the House is unlikely to take up comprehensive immigration reform in the absence of a Senate bill. We share the disappointment of many in Congress’s inability to reach agreement on this crucial issue.
With the farm workers, we call on Congress to pass AgJOBS now on its own to help protect the workers who feed our nation daily. The farm workers and growers went through very lengthy negotiations to reach the AgJOBS compromise and it should move forward now on its own merits.
We will continue to keep you updated. Thank you for your support.
Virginia Nesmith
|
|
Farmworkers Hold Press Conference in Nation’s Capital
Calling for AgJOBS Legislation
Farmworkers from several organizations around the United States met in the nation's capital today to urge the Senate to pass the AgJOBS farmworker immigration bill. They participated in a well-attended press conference with Senators Feinstein and Kennedy. The Senators supported AgJOBS and announced the results of a new immigration poll, whose authors also spoke.
The speakers at the press conference included:
· Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers
· Mirna Vasquez, a citrus worker from Porterville, California
· Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO
Vasquez announced that the farmworkers were bringing plastic fruit to Senate offices to emphasize the point that “real fruit requires real farmworkers,” and this country needs AgJOBS to ensure a stable, legal farm labor force.
In the large room, which overflowed with media represntatives, there were about 50 farmworkers and representatives of farmworker organizations from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Oregon, and California. With many wearing red t-shirts (both FLOC and UFW members wore red), they livened the Russell Senate Office Building. Large photos of farmworkers at work, donated by photographer Rick Nahmias, flanked the speakers.
 At least six television cameras (including Fox News, Univision, Telemundo, CNN and C-Span) were present. Numerous reporters attended and asked questions, including LA Times, Gannett News Service, San Francisco Chronicle, La Opinion, Cox News Service. Radio services also were present. Lots of photographers were clicking their cameras. (Kids present included the daughters of PCUN’s Ramon Ramirez, Sen. Kennedy’s ten-year-old grandson, and Sen. Feinstein’s teenage grand-daughter.)
After the press conference, the farmworkers fanned out to the Senate office buildings to meet with key Senators to urge them to support AgJOBS and oppose any unacceptable alternatives during the upcoming debate. At least one reporter was going to follow Florida farmworkers as they visited Sen. Mel Martinez, Sen. Bill Nelson and others.
The groups participating in the event were:
· United Farm Workers (UFW)
· Pineros Unidos del Noreste (PCUN), Oregon
· Farm Labor Organization Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC)
· El Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA), New Jersey & Pennsylvania
· Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas (CITA), New York
· Farmworker Association of Florida
· Centro Campesino, Minnesota
· La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), Texas
· UFW Foundation
· Farmworker Justice
· National Farm Worker Ministry
|
BACKGROUND:
AgJOBS is the most important piece of legislation affecting farmworkers in decades. In 2005, AgJOBS was included in the Comprehensive Immigration Refort Act that was passed in the Senate but was never sent to a conference committee to be reconciled with legislation passed in the House.
Summary of AgJOBS Bill 2007
Ag-Jobs benefits growers and workers
In 2003, after three years of tough negotiations, the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW) and a coalition of the nation's major agricultural employers reached a historic bipartisan compromise on immigration and labor reforms. It allows immigrant farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture and reforms the current H2A guestworker program, providing growers with a safe and stable workforce.
Ag-Jobs Means Fairness
AgJOBS strengthens protections for workers' rights, decent pay, and working conditions. It makes dangerous illegal border crossings unnecessary for hundrends of thousands of workers and allows farm worker families to stay together and fully participate in the society they help feed.
This compromise only applies to workers in the agricultural industry and does not address the needs of other undocumented workers. While this is a historic compromise, it is only the first step to broader reform of our current immigration system.
|
|
|
 Fifty farm workers from 15 states discuss the need for immigration reform at D.C. press conference - June 21, 2007
 Farm worker organizations join Senators to tell Congress to pass AgJOBS
Farm workers' joint statement says, in part: "If our broken immigration system isn’t fixed, then farm workers will continue to be abused, the agricultural industry will be without a stable workforce, and the safety of the nation's food supply will be in jeopardy."
Read full statement and press release.
Update: March , 2007
In the U.S. House, the AgJOBS language is now also included within the recently introduced "Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007" authored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, (D-Ill.), and Rep. Jeff Flake, (R-Ariz.). A companion bill is expected to be introduced by Senator Kennedy in the Senate in coming weeks.
AgJOBS reintroduced in U.S. Senate & House of Representatives - January, 2007
On January 10, 2007, Senators Feinstein (D-Cal.), Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Craig (R-Idaho) and Representatives Berman (D-Cal.) and Cannon (R-Utah) introduced AgJOBS, the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act of 2007. In the House, AgJOBS is now H.R. 371. In the Senate it is now S. 340.
This is substantially the same as the version passed last year by the Senate. It would give hundreds of thousands of farm workers and their families a path to legal residency in the U.S. It continues to enjoy bipartisan majority support and is endorsed by a broad spectrum of organizations, including agribusiness organizations, Latino community leaders, civil rights organizations, religious groups and farmworkers themselves. During the next few weeks we will be asking you to take action to ensure the passage of this important legislation
Treatment of undocumented immigrant farm workers started the whole immigration debate - Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2007
With President Bush wanting an immigration bill appealing to conservatives, workers are being asked to make concessions to help AgJOBS conform with the legislation being negotiated in the Senate.
Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers, wants AgJOBS to stand. "They didn't get everything they wanted, we didn't get everything we wanted," he says. "But we're happy with what we got, and we're going to push to keep that compromise intact."
Fresh way to legal status for undocumented - Daytona Beach News-Journal, February 12, 2007
AgJOBS Brought to Vote in Senate - All Headline News, April 20, 2005
Oregon's largest processor of fruits and vegetables is backing AgJOBS- Statesman Journal, April 12, 2005
Norpac Foods Inc. has asked Oregon's congressional delegation to support the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act of 2005
Broad Coalition in Florida pushes immigration reform bill - Daytona Beach News-Journal, February 25, 2005
Those speaking out in support of the AgJOBS bill included Tirso Moreno of the Farmworker Association of Florida, Catholic Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson and Nancy Powers of the Florida Catholic Conference.
The bill is also supported by the state's largest citrus organization, Florida Citrus Mutual, and the florida Nurserymen, Growers and Landscape Association.
|
|
|
|
|
|
* To open a pdf file, use Adobe Acrobat Reader; it can be downloaded for free.
Please direct all questions regarding the website to the webmaster.
© Copyright: NFWM. Wednesday, 16-Jul-2008 12:51:32 PDT. |
|
|
