Saxby Chambliss: “Back 6 years after the Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed, the Commission found that the same problems in the…”

“Back 6 years after the Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed, the Commission found that the same problems in the agricultural industry persist; the living and working conditions of farm workers had not improved; wages remained stagnant; increasing numbers of new illegal aliens are arriving to compete for the same small number of jobs, thus reducing the work hours available to each worker and contributing to lower annual earnings; and virtually all workers who hold seasonal agricultural jobs are unemployed at some point during the year. I think the experience of the SAW program should serve as a lesson to the Senate as we grapple with how to handle our current illegal population. I believe the amnesty in this bill is far too similar to the SAW Program in 1986 and will likely have the same result. We know from past experience that agricultural workers do not stay in their agricultural jobs for long, especially when they gain a legal status and have the option to work in less back-breaking occupations. Therefore, the focus on agricultural immigration should be on the H-2A program. This is the program that regardless of what the Senate does with amnesty, will be relied upon by our agricultural employers across the country in the near future.…”