Leahy: Compromise reached on dairy farm workers in immigrati
Leahy: Compromise reached on dairy farm workers in immigration reform package
Published: Friday, May 25, 2007
By Sam Hemingway
Free Press Staff Writer
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.
Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
