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Immigration Law

Labor-Starved Ag Businesses Want To Keep Immigrant Workers In US Legally

Peggy Lowe, Harvest Public Media, Nov. 3, 2017 - "Sonny Perdue, President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary, told Harvest Public Media this spring that he is working on a plan to allow undocumented workers to stay in the U.S., and that Trump supports it.

“He understands that there are long-term immigrants, sometimes undocumented immigrant laborers, out here on the farms, many of them that are doing a great job contributing to the economy of the United States,” Perdue says.

Politics make strange bedfellows, but many liberals and conservatives oppose Perdue’s proposal and Goodlatte’s bill.

Colorado immigration attorney Dan Kowalski jokingly calls Perdue’s plan “agnesty,” or agricultural amnesty. He compares it with what a lot of employers already use: [visas] that allow workers into the country seasonally, but tie them to a single employer.

“What I’m afraid of is that some employers or industries are longing for a return to a more plantation-type situation where you have low-paid, hard-working employees who are really trapped,” Kowalski says."