Ag industry reacts to RAISE Act
President Donald Trump announced his support for the RAISE (Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy) Act on Wednesday.
The legislation, which would overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, was introduced by Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. Under the act, potential immigrants would be graded based on their skills and employability, eliminate the international diversity visa lottery and would cut the number of refugees admitted each year.
“This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy,” President Trump said.
Trump said the RAISE Act would reduce poverty, increase wages and save taxpayers billions of dollars. However, many in Monterey County’s agriculture industry are speaking out against the proposed legislation, saying it could cause even more trouble down the line.
Right now thousands of workers are in the Salinas Valley for harvest season. One of them is Ramiro Lustre. He has a green card, but future farm workers may not be so lucky.
“It will affect us because there’s a lot of us who do not speak English,” Lustre said in Spanish. “If they are requiring 100% English, I only speak about 5-percent of the English language. It’s very difficult to retain another language because of our age. It’s not the same learning it now vs learning it when you’re a kid. It’s difficult if you don’t know the language. It’s difficult.”
The Monterey County Farm Bureau is an association of farmers and ranchers who work to solve problems in the industry, from farming to water resources to the environment. When it comes to the proposed legislation, the group is looking for some key things: comprehensive reform process, a guest worker program and a pathway to citizenship for those already here.
“So those are the three main components of what we look at when a new proposal comes out and if that proposal falls short, then obviously the local operators and farmers are really concerned because it could impact their supply which is already short as far as labor is concerned, even more,” said Norm Groot, the executive director for the Farm Bureau.
The current labor supply can only be described as “ok,” but some ag companies are seeing major shortages now.
“In the other one I have 20,” Serafin Tinajero said as he read off one of his logs. “In one of my squads I am missing 4, in another one 7, another one 6 and another one 5 to complete a full team.”
“The ag industry here, in our own backyard, is in a severe shortage of workers, field workers, that is jeopardizing a multi-billion dollar industry in our backyard,” Ricky Cabrera of Cabrera Contracting Incorporated said.
It’s not just the local ag industry that could be affected, but others that rely on manual labor.
“We really need to look at it more in a comprehensive matter that understands what all of the components are and what it means for everybody, not just agriculture but everybody totally in the industrial sector.”
