By Juliana Barbassa
Associated Press Writer
Fresno – Farmers across the country are backing federal legislation that would grant U.S. citizenship to illegal farmworkers, although Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and other beltway politicians remain skeptical of the bill.
The legislation, authored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, would allow illegal immigrants who have been working in the agricultural sector to become permanent legal residents and eventually citizens.
“It’s tough for us to get these types of workers here in the quantities that we need them,” said Pete Aiello, co-owner and sales manager of Uesugi Farms, in Gilroy. “At the peak of our season we’ll have five, six, seven hundred people working each day. Obviously the government wants to control illegal immigration, but considering there are no American citizens who want to do this work, somebody’s got to do it. I think the legislation makes a lot of sense.”
Aiello is not the only farmer who thinks the labor crunch could be relieved by the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2005, commonly known as AgJobs. Farmers across California and the rest of the country have thrown their support behind the legislation. At a Tuesday news conference in Fresno, for instance, farmworker advocates decried an immigration system that keeps willing workers from jobs that need to be done.
The conference was sponsored by the National Farmworker Alliance, a coalition of immigrant and labor organizations working to improve the working conditions of fieldworkers. Participants called for Congressional support of a bill that would let agricultural workers earn legal residency and other measures that would increase their access to education and job training.
“It’s critical for this country to face the reality of a labor pool across the border,” said farmer Luawanna Hallstrom, who grows tomatoes on a farm her family has operated for three generations at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, north of San Diego.
UFW President Arturo Rodriguez has called the AgJobs bill one of the most important pieces of farmworker legislation in decades.
It has broad support from the agriculture industry and other business groups like the National Council of Agricultural Employers, the United States Chamber of Commerce and the California Farm Bureau Federation.
But opposition to the bill remains. Sen. Feinstein went on record in April saying the bill in its current language would be “a magnet for illegal immigration.”
She said she would only vote for the measure if several amendments were approved, increasing the number of days applicants would have to work in agriculture before being eligible to earn temporary residency and citizenship. She would also like the bill to forbid those convicted of crimes from applying, and to limit eligibility to workers already living in the United States.
Congressman Mike Honda, D-San Jose, did not return a call for comment
Hallstrom said tighter security along the U.S.-Mexico border left many growers with spot shortages of workers during harvest, when they’re most needed.
But in particular, they asked Congress to regulate the largely illegal agricultural workforce – a measure they said would benefit the fieldworkers, the farmers who employ them, and the American population that depends on the food they grow.
According to the National Farmworker Alliance, about 77 percent of people who do farm work in the U.S. are foreign born, and 53 percent are here illegally.
The bill failed last year, but supporters said they are optimistic about chances in 2005. The Senate Judiciary Committee bill is expected to review the bill July 26.
Staff writer Serdar Tumgoren contributed to this report.
