If Kevin McCarthy truly supports farmers, he’ll back this bill to legalize workers | Opinion

A bipartisan group of congressional representatives is trying to solve a pressing problem for agriculture: creating a way for undocumented farm workers to legally work in America.

Having enough workers to plant, water, treat and harvest crops has been one of farming’s biggest challenges for years. With the reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, lawmakers hope to finally secure a legal workforce safe from deportation.

Among the chief sponsors are three San Joaquin Valley lawmakers: Jim Costa, a Democrat from Fresno, and Republicans David Valadao of Hanford and John Duarte of Turlock. Salud Carbajal, a Democrat who represents San Luis Obispo, is sponsoring, as are Zoe Lofgren of San Jose and Jimmy Panetta of Monterey. The other West Coast lawmaker signing on is Republican Dan Newhouse of central Washington; lawmakers in New York and Idaho are also backing it.

“Providing a path to legal residency for the men and women who work to put food on our dinner tables is long overdue,” Costa said. “California’s farming communities have dealt with worker shortages for years, a problem that got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. These workers feed Americans and deserve a path to legal residency.”

Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen agrees with Costa.

“We are in a constant, chronic shortage for the industry,” Jacobsen told The Bee Editorial Board last fall, when a companion version of the bill was being considered in the Senate.

Growers are increasingly forced to turn to mechanization or even robotics for chores like harvesting, Jacobsen added. “But to deliver a fresh peach or bunch of grapes, it still takes a set of human hands.”

The stakes are high: Fresno County growers earned a total production value of just over $8 billion in 2021 (the most recent year reported), making it one of the top farming counties in the nation.

Farm workers get legalized

The bill would grant farm workers, their spouses and children legal status if they remain in agricultural work for set periods.

Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for United Farm Workers, said there about between 500,000 to 800,000 farm workers in California. Of them, 60% are estimated to be undocumented.

“So we’re talking hundreds of thousands of workers who would gain legal status in California alone,” he said.

Wage standards would be set, and incentives to improve existing worker housing and grants to build new housing would be offered. An example of such housing is Mariposa Commons in west Fresno.

Up to 20,000 visas would be available for dairy and other year-round employers. And a single online platform for filing records would be created for all federal agencies to use, simplifying the processing.

UFW and another advocacy group, Farmworker Justice, supported the act in previous years and continue to do so.

Thirty Republicans joined 217 Democrats in the House two years ago to pass the act. Voting no, however, was Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield and then House minority leader.

The companion bill in the Senate also failed late last year, ending hopes for passage in the last Congress.

Kevin McCarthy a key vote

The opposition last time by the American Farm Bureau Federation was ill-considered. Rather than quibble on specifics, as the federation did then, it should be savvy enough to recognize that support for modernization is needed now. Fixes to the legislation can be made in subsequent years.

Speaker McCarthy should also get behind the bill. His redrawn district stretches from Bakersfield north to Clovis. In between are miles of some of America’s most valuable farmland. Who tends those fields, vineyards and orchards? Workers — if growers can round up the crews they must have, that is.

Asked by The Bee Editorial Board for his view of the bill, a spokesman for the speaker emailed this comment: “As the representative of one of the largest agricultural regions in the nation, one of Congressman McCarthy’s highest priorities is supporting farmers and agricultural producers, as well as protecting American food supplies in the Central Valley, California, and across the U.S. This bill, like any other bill introduced in Congress, will be reviewed by the congressman as it moves through the legislative and committee review process.”

The need — and the economic stakes — could not be more obvious. Speaker McCarthy should recognize the opportunity he has to do something truly significant for farmers and back the bill, then press for passage in the Senate.

This editorial has been updated with Speaker McCarthy’s comment.