Press Releases

Watch Carbajal’s full remarks here.

Yesterday, Rep. Salud Carbajal joined a bipartisan group of House members to introduce the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. This bill has the initial support of 24 Democrats and 21 Republicans, and provides lasting reforms to our immigration system that address workforce shortage in the agriculture industry.

"My father was a farmworker, I spent summers working with him in the fields and I know firsthand how important the labor of those who harvest our food is to this nation," said Rep. Salud Carbajal. "Agriculture is the number one industry in my district and I have heard countless times from producers about the devastating labor shortage that stems from our broken immigration system. This groundbreaking bipartisan bill creates a lasting solution by providing earned legal status for our existing agricultural workforce, and modernizing the guest worker program to ensure long term industry sustainability that supports farmworkers and growers alike."

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act—which was negotiated over several months with input from agricultural industry and labor stakeholders—provides for earned legal status for existing farmworkers, makes meaningful reforms to the H-2A agricultural guest worker program and creates a first-of-its-kind, merit-based visa program specifically designed for the nation’s agricultural sector.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19), and co-authored by Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04), Collin Peterson (D-MN-07), Mike Simpson (R-ID-02), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-20), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-01), TJ Cox (D-CA-21), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL-25) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24).