{"id":1941697,"date":"2023-06-01T05:25:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T09:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-disagree-on-how-to-solve-us-farm-worker-shortage\/"},"modified":"2023-06-01T05:31:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T09:31:37","slug":"senators-disagree-on-how-to-solve-us-farm-worker-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-disagree-on-how-to-solve-us-farm-worker-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators disagree on fixing US farm worker shortage."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenators-disagree-on-how-to-solve-us-farm-worker-shortage%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1941697&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Farm Worker Shortage: A Crisis Approaching<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0531\/8eab2852-4b93-45b8-a1ba-a8e8ecbdca43\/audio.mp3?length=3851181&#038;duration=321\"><\/div>\n<p>Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agree that the shortage of farm workers in the United States is approaching crisis levels. But they differ on how to address the problem as it relates to recent immigrants.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur immigration system is failing; it\u2019s failing them as well as our farmers and the American people,\u201d said Durbin, who chairs the committee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Witnesses at a May 31 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-disagree-on-how-to-solve-us-farm-worker-shortage\/\" title=\"Senators disagree on fixing US farm worker shortage.\">current immigration law leaves immigrants open<\/a> to exploitation and abuse by human traffickers and unethical employers.<\/p>\n<h3>The Need for Agricultural Labor Reform<\/h3>\n<p>Durbin agreed with witnesses who said most farm workers are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-happening-president-trump-issues-warning-swing-states-that-found-massive-voter-fraud-which-is-all-of-them-cannot-legally-certify-these-votes\/\" title=\"IT\u2019S HAPPENING: President Trump Issues Warning \u2013 Swing States that Found MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes\">illegal immigrants<\/a> whose human rights must be protected by ensuring that agricultural labor reform includes the possibility of citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Graham said implementing reforms without securing the border would only make a bad situation even worse.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5260334\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/12\/id5260334-GettyImages-1253919170-1200x799.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/12\/id5260334-GettyImages-1253919170-1200x799.jpg\" alt=\"Illegal immigrants board vans after waiting along the border wall to surrender to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents for immigration and asylum claim processing on the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on May 11, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images)\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h3>The H2A Temporary Visa Program<\/h3>\n<p>The witnesses said the problem begins with the inability to find citizens and legal residents willing to do the difficult and often dangerous farm work. Many farmers turn to the H2A temporary visa program, which presents its own problems.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>H2A requires that farmers try to hire U.S. citizens or legal residents first.<\/li>\n<li>The Department of Labor set the farm worker base wage at $16 per hour.<\/li>\n<li>Farmers are also required to provide housing and transportation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Leon Sequeira, former Assistant Secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush administration, is an attorney for agricultural employers. He said the Department of Labor administers the H2A Visa program and is often hostile or indifferent to farmers. This puts the farmers in a tough spot.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cFarmers have no other legal option,\u201d he told the committee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sequeira said that in the past year, 300 legal residents applied for the roughly 500,000 open farm jobs. This is an average of about six applicants for every 10,000 jobs. However, H2A presents challenges as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFarmers do not get to set the price for their products.\u201d he said. \u201cThe market sets the price.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3822017\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/05\/19\/mexican-workers-imperial-valley-calif.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/05\/19\/mexican-workers-imperial-valley-calif.jpg\" alt=\"Mexican farm workers harvest celery in a field in the Imperial Valley, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2017. (Sandy Huffaker\/AFP via Getty Images)\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p>Sequeira said farmers compete in an international market. While American farmers pay workers $16 per hour, Mexican farmers pay about $11 daily.<\/p>\n<h3>A National Security Issue<\/h3>\n<p>Chalmers Carr, a South Carolina farmer, testified that this makes the issue more than just a market or immigration problem.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe have a very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-the-ukraine-war-revealed-about-the-worlds-fragile-food-supply-chains\/\" title=\"What The Ukraine War Revealed About The World\u2019s Fragile Food Supply Chains\">fragile food supply chain<\/a>. I would say we are adversely affecting the consumer with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/general-mills-to-raise-prices-on-yogurt-cereal-other-foods-due-to-inflation\/\" title=\"General Mills To Raise Prices On Yogurt, Cereal, Other Foods Due To Inflation\">higher food prices<\/a>,\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He added that citizenship wasn\u2019t necessarily the best incentive. Carr said that in his experience, many of the illegal aliens came to the United States for financial benefits.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1247578\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/02\/11\/129068135-1200x792.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/02\/11\/129068135-1200x792.jpg\" alt=\"Mexican migrant workers load boxes of organic cilantro during the fall harvest at Grant Family Farms on Oct. 11, 2011. in Wellington, Colo. (Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images)\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf we created a better <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-poll-spotlights-public-opposition-to-corporate-labor-migration\/\" title=\"GOP Poll Spotlights Public Opposition to Corporate Labor Migration\">guest worker program<\/a>, we could solve this problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h3>Humanitarian Considerations<\/h3>\n<p>Other witnesses said there are humanitarian considerations as well.<\/p>\n<p>Diana Tellefson Torres is CEO of the United Farm Workers Foundation. She said many illegal alien farmworkers make much less than the $16 per hour set by the government. <strong>She said human smugglers and unethical employers force illegal workers to pay them various fees.<\/strong> Because of this, many illegals enter the c<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senators Durbin and Graham acknowledge the US farm worker shortage is nearing crisis levels, but disagree on how to address the issue for recent immigrants. Witnesses at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on May 31 stated that current immigration laws do not support immigrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1615,"featured_media":1941698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[8207,15439,16780,3709,5562,7677],"class_list":["post-1941697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-disagree","tag-farm","tag-fixing","tag-senators","tag-shortage","tag-worker"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}