Benefits for farmworkers seen in new immigration bill

Published: 2004-02-24

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The lives of immigrant farmworkers, who make up more than half of the 1.8 million U.S. agricultural workers, could be improved under a proposed law that could legalize their status by the end of the decade, speakers said Feb. 23 at a social ministry workshop. The bill is supported by a bipartisan coalition in both houses of Congress -- and by both growers and farmworkers unions -- but could be scuttled by its congressional opponents, according to J. Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the U.S. bishops' Migration and Refugee Services. "There are some very, very powerful people who have problems with this bill," he said at a workshop session during the annual Feb. 22-25 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. The bill -- known as the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act -- also could be jeopardized by legislative amendments. The bill was crafted by the farmworkers unions and the growers during arduous negotiations.

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