[T]he Vermont congressional delegation has announced its support for introducing legislation that would protect undocumented farmworkers from deportation and provide them a path to legal status and citizenship.
The bill, the Agricultural Worker Program Act, was introduced on Wednesday in both the Senate and the House by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Now Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders have added their signatures as co-sponsors to the Senate version, and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has co-sponsored the House bill.
“Across our country, including the many dairy farms of Vermont, foreign workers support agriculture and help put food on our tables,” Leahy said in a statement. “It is past time we show our support for them and our understanding of the challenges that farmers and workers face in doing this hard work.”
In the proposed legislation, farmworkers who have worked in agriculture for at least 100 days in the past two years may earn “blue card” status that allows them to continue to legally work in the United States.
Farmworkers who maintain blue card status for the next three to five years, depending on hours worked, would be eligible for lawful permanent residence — commonly known as a green card.
Enrique Balcazar, a spokesperson for the Vermont-based group Migrant Justice, said this shift in immigration policy is an important first step but that Congress must support full immigration reform for all undocumented immigrants in the country.
“We would need to ensure that when passed the law is comprehensive in including all migrant farmworkers in Vermont,” Balcazar said. “This would be an important change to see immigrant farmworkers to be able to become documented, but it is just one step.”
In November, the American Civil Liberties of Vermont and the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing Migrant Justice, filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles for the deliberate targeting of dozens of its members for detention and deportation by ICE in collaboration with the DMV.
Balcazar said he is not sure how this legislation might impact undocumented farmworkers being targeted by immigration enforcement agents, but that it is unlikely to change those practices in the short term.
“This is just one step because we need to make sure that all workers, documented and undocumented, have support and protection,” Balcazar said.
In a statement, Sanders called for comprehensive immigration reform and blamed President Donald Trump for immigration policy that targets migrant farmers in Vermont and across the country.
“Trump’s shameful immigration policies have targeted farmworkers for deportation, often tearing apart families and communities in the process,” Sanders said. “This bill is a very good step in terms of giving hardworking people who put food on our tables the opportunity to earn legal status, and ensuring Vermont farms have the stable workforce they need to survive.”
Welch, who has been a supporter of immigration reform and extending rights for migrant farmers in Vermont, said this legislation would allow farmworkers to make a living without “constant threat of arrest” and that these people are integral to rural farming economies.
“In Vermont and across the country, foreign-born agricultural workers help keep our dairy farms and rural economy afloat,” Welch said. “It would also reduce the uncertainty faced by our dairy farmers, who are already confronting many challenges including high energy costs, labor shortages, and unstable milk prices.”
