Leahy: Compromise reached on dairy farm workers in immigration reform package
05/25/2007
By Sam Hemingway
Burlington Free Press
Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has reached an agreement with White House and
Senate negotiators on an amendment to the immigration reform
legislation that will give dairy farmers access to immigrant laborers
for extended periods of time.
Under the deal, which won
unanimous consent of the Senate on Wednesday night, dairy farms could
hire foreign workers for three-year periods, after which the workers
would have to return home unless they had obtained a green card
permitting permanent residency here.
Immigrant dairy workers
could also qualify for entry into the country under other, more
temporary work visa programs under the compromise, but those programs
are not considered as useful for those involved in dairy farm work.
Dairy
farmers, in Vermont and elsewhere, say they need workers who can remain
in the country for longer periods of time because dairy work is
year-round and is more complex than the seasonal demands of vegetable
and fruit farmers. Vermont employs an estimated 2,000 immigrant
workers, many of them Mexicans who are here illegally.
"These
changes should provide significant opportunities for America's dairy
farmers to obtain future legal workers to meet their needs," Leahy said
in a Wednesday evening floor speech supporting the compromise.
Leahy
also said he would have preferred adoption of the more dairy-farm
friendly language in an AgJobs bill he co-sponsored earlier this year
but said politically that wasn't possible.
"Unfortunately there
were objections from the Bush administration and the authors of the
bill now pending, so I have worked with the managers of this bill to
craft this compromise," Leahy said.
Under the AgJobs
legislation, immigrant workers who entered the country to work on dairy
farms would have been able to stay for three years and, if they applied
for a green card, could continue to stay in the country while their
application was being considered.
As part of the immigration
reform legislation, immigrant workers including those employed on dairy
farms as of Jan. 1, 2007 will be given an opportunity to obtain a green
card and remain in the country.
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