Western States Dairy Producers Association supports immigration reform that solves the two most pressing labor issues that dairy farmers face – adjusting the status of current workers on dairy farms and creating a flexible agricultural visa program for future labor needs. We feel strongly that for any immigration legislation to succeed, it must include provisions for both of these classes of workers.
Effective immigration reform for the dairy industry must include:
- Issuing work visas for agricultural workers currently or recently employed on farms who do not currently have legal status. We recognize that these current farmworkers should be required to pay all taxes owed and potentially pay a fine for their presence. If the work visa requires a ‘touchback’ provision in a foreign country, this requirement should be of short duration and be able to be fulfilled over a long enough period of time so as not to disrupt on-farm production.
- A guest worker program that will issue visas to foreign nationals who wish to work within the agriculture industry in the US. Agricultural guest worker visas must be for year-round labor. These visas should be for a minimum of three years duration and be extendable for at least another three-year period. This visa should be transferable between agricultural jobs during that time. If a hard cap on the number of new ag work visas is established, the number must be re-assessed each year to reflect the actual need of the agriculture industry.
- The federal government will take full responsibility for the verification of legal status for employees and not rely on farmers to determine legality of employment.
- The issuing of agricultural work visas and the determination of the industry’s need for visas will be the sole responsibility of the US Dept of Agriculture.
