Congress Slips Amnesty Into the Farm Bill

Scott Mechkowski, a Visiting Fellow at the Oversight Project who focuses on immigration, picked up another attempt at amnesty in the farm bill. Mr. Mechkowski linked to the summary of H.R. 9535, the “Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act,” on X to prove it.

House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson sponsored it. 61 cosponsors, 52 of them Republicans.

The bill “establishes an H-2A visa pathway for current unauthorized agricultural workers who otherwise meet requirements.” Current unauthorized workers are people who are here illegally right now.

“With the border now secure, it is time to address these shortcomings.”

As Mr. Merchkowski writes, “The border is more secure because we finally started enforcing the law. You don’t reward that by handing a visa to the people who broke it.”

He said the timing is the worst since on Monday night the President said, “We haven’t put the same pressure on waitresses and on farmworkers, etc. Not even close.”

“That’s exactly the opening this bill’s supporters have been waiting for,” Mechowski said.

He is correct. “Every carve-out becomes a business model, as in 1986. People who weren’t farm workers pretended they were.

Mr. Mechowski said, “Make farm work the safe lane and the fake employment letters will show up by the truckload. Farmers have a real labor problem, and I’m not dismissing it. Fix H-2A. Speed it up. Cut the red tape. Let it run year-round. That’s legal labor, and I’ll support it. But a visa for people who are here illegally isn’t a workforce plan. It’s amnesty in overalls. Call your representative and ask one question: are you one of the 61?”

Can’t we just follow the law?

Image: Pexels Christina and Peter