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Illinois Ag News Headlines |
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Lawmakers Hold Hearing on Immigrant Workers and Farming
Illinois Ag Connection - 06/02/2023
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on immigrant labor and farming entitled "From Farm to Table: Immigrant Workers Get the Job Done."
The manager of a Florida farm urged lawmakers to allow more seasonal immigrant workers into the country to address a national labor shortage in agriculture.
Adam Lytch, Operations Manager at Florida-based L&M Farms, told lawmakers that the farming industry faces a workforce crisis and that Congress should grant legal status to "skilled farmworkers who are working without authorization."
"For me, this issue transforms politics, and we need reforms that will allow us to have a stable workforce so that our growers can continue to feed the nation," he said.
According to the Department of Agriculture, demand for the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program, which allows non-U.S. citizens to legally perform seasonal work for up to 10 months, has increased dramatically.
Lytch says the problem is more acute in Florida because of its longer growing seasons.
"The program is greatly flawed and made even more challenging by the federal agency and trusted to administer it, with a volatile wage structure and program restrictions such as seasonal need, which does not work well in this era of modern agriculture," he said.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Judiciary panel, called the agriculture worker shortage "dire" and stressed the need to enact comprehensive immigration reform to address it.
"When it comes to securing our nation's food supply chain, immigration reform is a top priority," Durbin said. "And though strengthening our nation's borders is a crucial component, it's only one part of the equation.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
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