Grassfire Briefing: AgJOBS Amnesty Bill

BILL STATUS
Name: S. 237, S. 340, & H.R. 371
Senate bills S.237 and S.340 have been read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. House bill H.R. 371 has been referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.

Summary info here - S.340 \ H.R. 371

AMNESTY Bit-By-Bit
Congress has breathed new life into amnesty for illegal immigrants. Congress's attempt to provide amnesty for illegal immigrants this past summer was crushed by the overwhelming response of the American public for such disregard for the American rule of law. Having not learned their lesson, Congress is taking a bit by bit approach to establishing amnesty for illegal immigrants into American law.

The AgJOBs AMNESTY BILL
The Senate and House have reintroduced The Ag JOBS ACT in bills S. 237, S.340 and H.R. 371 respectfully. The Ag JOBS ACT introduces a pilot program that provides work visa, or blue cards, to guest workers who wish to work in the agricultural sector, regardless of whether they are currently in the U.S illegally.

Under this act 1.5 million illegal agricultural workers and 1.8 million of their family members would be able to obtain a "blue card" which grants temporary legal status for themselves and their families. To qualify for the "blue card" the illegal workers must have worked in the U.S. at least 863 hours (150 work days based on 5.75 hour work days) in 2005 and 2006. The Ag JOBS ACT adopts a looser approach to the basic requirements that applicants must meet to be granted blue card status. Thus, this legislation makes it even easier for illegal immigrants to obtain legal status than under the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill. This act is costly to taxpayers, encourages illegal immigration, invites fraud, creates a sub-class of residents, and does not produce a lasting legal agricultural workforce.

INSTALLMENT PLAN OF AMNESTY
Congress passed the Special Agriculture Worker amnesty in 1986 which proved to be a big failure. This past amnesty bill proved that when illegal immigrants are given green cards, they leave agriculture for other higher-paying occupations. According to Numbers USA, "Any form of amnesty entices hundred of thousands of new illegal aliens, some of whom will work in agriculture and depress wages in all fields, including agriculture."

Trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past, the AgJobs amnesty creates a two-step path to citizenship. First, illegal immigrants are granted temporary residence and indentured for a three to five years depending on the amount of work done each year. This mandatory working period is intended to ensure that the immigrants continue to work in agriculture for the short term. Second, once the newly legalized aliens have paid their dues of working for cheap labor, they will be granted lawful permanent residence, in as early as three years.

AMNESTY DEFINED
Amnesty is a sovereign act of forgiveness for past acts, granted by a government to persons or a class of persons who have been guilty of crime. The legal result is that those charged or convicted (or subject to charge or conviction) are no longer subject to that charge or conviction. In other words, the slate is wiped clean. Deportation is the statutory penalty for illegal immigration. By definition any government that permits illegal aliens to avoid deportation is providing amnesty.

Allowing an illegal alien to continue working the job that he broke the law to get does not provide reconciliation in immigration policy. It sends the mixed message that obedience to the law is optional and opens the floodgates for millions of other potential illegal immigrants.

AG JOBS ATROCITIES

• Costs to the Taxpayer. Under the 1986 Amnesty law, nearly three million illegal aliens received amnesty. The Center for Immigration Studies issued a report in 1997 which calculated that over a period of ten years, the amnestied populace in 1986 received $102 billion in local, state, and federal assistance programs and services and paid a total of $78 billion in taxes. This leads to a net direct cost of $24 billion. Indirect costs added approximately $55 billion more. AgJobs will force the American taxpayers to replicate their actions in 1986; taxpayers will foot the bill.
• AgJOBS Amnesty encourages fraud. As mentioned previously illegal aliens, will need to establish certain working requirements necessary to obtain their blue card. Since illegal aliens are by definition "undocumented" or at least not legally documented, it will be difficult if not impossible for the government to disprove virtually any illegal alien application. Document fraud will abound.
• Undermining National Security. Nearly two-thirds of the illegal aliens who applied for the 1986 "Special Agricultural Workers" Amnesty filed fraudulent applications. Countless aliens never even worked in agriculture. Mahmud Abouhalima is a prime example of the dangers associated with passing the AgJOBS bill. Abouhalima was a New York City Taxi Cab driver who in 1986 was granted amnesty as an agricultural worker. This man defrauded the American government, did not work one day as an agriculture worker, and turned out to be a convicted perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mahmud Abouhalima is a terrorist now serving a 240-year prison sentence, but the damage is done.
• No Touchback. Another troubling aspect of this bill is that applicants would not need to return to their home countries before applying. This continues the no touchback provisions of the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill that the American people rejected.
• Criminals can apply. Applicants with pending criminal charges and those who have been convicted of some misdemeanors can still receive amnesty.
• Illegal Applicants Protected. In addition to amnesty, a confidentiality clause would bar the Department of Homeland Security from using an applicant's information for alternative purposes, such as enforcing federal immigration laws. Thus, simply applying for amnesty under Agjobs gives illegal aliens a level of legal protection against deportation.
• Better job protections than citizens. The amendment also protects workers of blue card status from being fired unless the employer has just cause. This protection is not even afforded to American workers who work in states with "at will" employment laws, which allow employers to fire employees for any reason. This clause has a potential for trapping employers in a quagmire of legal proceedings in a system that favors the recently amnestied illegal alien.

A CLASS OF POVERTY
AgJobs will not create a legal, stable agricultural workforce because it does nothing to make agricultural jobs more attractive or to reduce the future flow of illegal aliens. It will ensure an impoverished workforce and it will legalize indentured servitude. An indentured servant is an un-free laborer under contract to work for a specified amount of time for another person in exchange for accommodation, food, other essentials, and free passage into a new country. The wages are usually low and the conditions deplorable.

AgJobs authorizes employers to set the wages for the indentured, formerly illegal, workers at any level desired. The workers will have no choice but to labor for whatever wages and conditions the employers deems fit. The AgJobs immigrants must perform mandatory agriculture work or they will be deported. AgJobs will allow employers to freeze the pay scale at the minimum wage which in turn will cause industry wages to plummet from unlivable to deplorable for immigrant and native workers alike.

This AgJobs form of indentured servitude was abolished along with slavery when the thirteenth amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1865.

AgJobs Amnesty 2007 is not the answer. The right solution is to, first and foremost, build the promised security fence, secure our borders and enforce current immigration laws. America's immigration policy already is the most welcoming in the world.

More Resources:

NumbersUSA Hot Topic: AgJobs

Heritage Foundation - Web Memo: The Ag JOBS