Robert Goodlatte, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill, the Agricultural Guestworker Act of 2013, to replace the existing H-2A agricultural visa program with a new H-2C visa program. The bill proposes to allow up to 500,000 temporary agricultural laborers into the United States per year. That number is subject to change by the Secretary of Agriculture. The visa would allow workers to stay in the US for up to 18 months, as opposed to the maximum of 1 year currently issued to H-2A visa holders.
Details of the Agricultural Guestworker Act
Employers would still have to petition for each worker. The H-2C program would be expanded to dairies, food processors, and other non-seasonal agricultural employers. The H-2C program would change the guaranteed number of work hours from 75% of the workdays in the contract period to 50% of the work hours for the promised period. Employers under this program will no longer be required to guarantee housing or transportation expenses. In another change, temporary agricultural workers would not be able to bring their spouses and children to the U.S. in H-4 status.
What about the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform proposal?
Representative Goodlatte’s bill clashes with the changes proposed in the Senate. Notably, the Senate has only proposed allowing 112,000 visas per year. These proposed changes in the Agricultural Guestworker Act are beneficial to employers and additional agricultural industries, but substantial costs would be imposed upon immigrant laborers. There is surely going to be strong debate on the measures introduced in this bill. This potentially foreshadows a drawn out conversation between the House and the Senate on this and other proposed immigration reforms.
