Henry Cuellar: “Farm work is hard work. Both of my parents, Odilia and Martin, were farmworkers. It is very hard work. It is one of…”

“Farm work is hard work. Both of my parents, Odilia and Martin, were farmworkers. It is very hard work. It is one of those type of jobs that is very necessary to make sure that we bring food to the table. I represent several areas that are rural, and my ranchers and my farmers need an ag work program. It has to. They need it. I have always said, if an American wants the job, let them have that job. But if they are not going to fill that position, then we need to have a guest worker plan, just like we did during World War II, where we did the Bracero program. Therefore, we need to support this for our ranchers and our farmers. I will tell you this, it is not amnesty. What Ronald Reagan did in 1986, that was amnesty. This is not amnesty. And if you want to talk about border security, this will help secure the border. Let me explain. If you have people who will come into a secure system to come work, and then they go back, then you can have Border Patrol focus on the people who have the bad motives, the people who want to bring in drugs, the people who want to smuggle or traffic people. So this actually will help border security if we set this up right, like they did in World War II. Madam Speaker, I ask Members to support this program. It is needed by our farmworkers. We need to do it. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren and Mr. Nadler for their work. Mr. McCLINTOCK.…”