Zoe Lofgren: “We have labored long and hard, those of us in our bipartisan group that worked to solve a problem that our country has…”

“We have labored long and hard, those of us in our bipartisan group that worked to solve a problem that our country has, which is we need a stable workforce in the agricultural sector. I thank last year's chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, for the work that he did on this bill; this year's chair who also supports this bill, Mr. Scott; as well as the ranking member who said that he would vote for it even though there are some things he would like to change. It is a compromise, and it was worked on for almost over a year to get to this point. We believe that having a legal workforce in agriculture that will give stability is not only good for those workers, but it is good for their employers, and it is good for America. We believe that making sure that there is a future flow of a legal workforce not only into farms but now into dairy is good for America because we think immigration ought to be legal. It ought to be regularized. It ought to be orderly. That is what this bill would accomplish. Finally, there has been a lot of talk about enforcement. This bill has enforcement in it. When the bill is implemented, we will have a strategy in a legal way to meet the needs of agriculture in America. If we have that as law, we ought to enforce that law. That is why, on a bipartisan basis, we agreed that E-Verify ought to be applied to this whole sector. This is a package that will make America stronger. It is fair to farmworkers. It is fair to farmers.…”