Statement asks support for farmworker legalization bill

Published: 2003-11-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pending legislation to grant legal status to some undocumented farmworkers should be supported and made into law, said a Nov. 12 statement from the president of the U.S. bishops' conference, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill. At the request of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Bishop Gregory's statement was drafted during the bishops' fall general meeting in Washington. The Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act "represents a compromise between farmworker representatives and agricultural employers negotiated over the past several years," Bishop Gregory's statement said. "Its central component would give more than one-half million undocumented farmworkers an opportunity to legalize their status and the opportunity to assert their rights in the workplace more effectively."

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