Agjobs bill
James Allen, head of the New York Apple Association, has a guest essay in today’s D&C about somthing called the AgJOBS bill (not sure why jobs has to be capitalized) that would deal with migrant laborers from other countries. It sounds fairly reasonable:
# A two-step “legalization” program whereby undocumented farmworkers who have been performing work in agriculture in the United States may gain temporary resident immigration status and then earn permanent resident immigration status upon completing additional employment in U.S. agriculture during the next three to five years.
# Revisions to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, which allows agricultural employers to employ foreign workers on temporary non-immigrant visas based on claims of labor shortages.
As Mr. Allen points out, agriculture is the biggest industry in New York state and it relies crucially on migrant workers. This sounds like a bill I might support, since it contains a pathway to permanent resident status, though the lack of the word “citizenship” concerns me.
According to Mr. Allen, Tom Reynolds and Randy Kuhl both support the bill (as do Hillary and Schumer). Immigration issues have the potential to become a political minefield for Kuhl — Bob Lonsberry has already pledged to support a primary challenge against Kuhl if Kuhl supports an immigration bill that Lonsberry sees as too lax (God only knows what that means, but I’m fairly certain this legislation fits the bill). It will be interesting to see how Lonsberry reacts to this.
Related posts:
[...] Exile at RT points out an excellent guest essay by James Allen of the NY Apple Association on a proposed solution to the Republican-made controversy over immigration: [...]
[...] recall, that there was an essay about the AgJOBS bill in the D&C yesterday (here’s our post about [...]