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AgJOBS Sample Letter |
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For Microsoft Word Document CLICK HERE! July 2004 President George Bush
Dear President Bush: Please immediately inform Senate Majority Leader Bill First that you strongly support holding a vote on Senator Larry Craig's amendment on farmworker immigration during the consideration of upcoming bills. The farmworker immigration amendment is based on the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003, also known as "AgJOBS," S.1645. Please tell Majority Leader Frist that you would like an up-or-down vote on the AgJOBS amendment. * The AgJOBS amendment by Senator Craig and Senator Kennedy is a compromise among farmworker organizations, labor unions, agricultural employers, immigrant groups and others. It is endorsed by major agribusiness groups, farm labor organizations, Hispanic civil rights organizations like the National Council of La Raza, and many others. * The bill would give agricultural employers a stable labor supply by giving many agricultural workers who lack authorized immigration status the chance to become legal immigrants. The majority of farmworkers now are undocumented. Under this earned adjustment program, workers will have to demonstrate that they have been working in the U.S. and then work three to six additional years in agriculture in the U.S. to gain permanent immigration status. * It also will revise the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, including by converting it from a labor certification program to a labor attestation program with less paperwork for employers, modeled after the H-1B program. Important safeguards for labor will continue. * It will promote homeland security by helping our government identify who is inside the U.S. This compromise was carefully drafted after arduous negotiations over every word that took hundreds of hours after years of confrontations in Congress. The delicate compromise, based on painful concessions on all sides of the debate, should be enacted to confront an untenable status quo. We know that the Senate will pass it if you support AgJOBS. We will view this as a test of your willingness to follow your words about the need for immigration reform with action. Thank you. Sincerely, Name Address |
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