Feinstein Bill Attempts to Shield Farmworkers from Deportation

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PJ Media

WASHINGTON – In the face of President Trump’s hardline promises on deportation, immigration advocates on Tuesday voiced support for new legislation that would provide undocumented farmworkers a path to legalization.
The Agricultural Worker Program Act, introduced last week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), would extend legal residence to workers who have completed 100 days of agriculture work in each of the past two years. Those workers could apply for “blue card” status, allowing for three to five years of residence, depending on their workloads, and eventual green card status.
Feinstein said during a conference call Tuesday that Trump’s mass deportation rhetoric has driven much-needed farm workers into hiding in California. According to U.C. Davis statistics, as many as 560,000 people, or 70 percent of the farming workforce, are not documented.
“Wherever I go in California, they tell me they can’t find workers, that workers are scared,” Feinstein said. “That they are afraid they’re going to be picked up and deported.”