McHugh pens bill on farm workers

WASHINGTON — Future immigrant workers on dairy farms would be allowed to remain in the country longer if a bill proposed by Rep. John M. McHugh becomes law. But the plan leaves out anyone already working on a farm.

The legislation, which the congressman acknowledged likely will go nowhere this year, gives dairy workers two three-year stints on a guest worker visa. It extends the guest worker program for seasonal farm workers to dairies, which have not been eligible because of the year-round nature of dairy work.

Mr. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, said he wanted to separate the dairy worker issue from the larger immigration debate, which centers largely on what to do with undocumented immigrants already working in the United States.

"We try to avoid the debate about amnesty," Mr. McHugh said Thursday. "You don't milk a cow just at a certain season of the year."

The legislation, which also applies to sheep farms, responds to demands from farm groups to give dairies similar protections to those provided to other types of farms. Dairy groups see a guest worker program as a way to attract more milkers, for instance, continuing the dairy industry's trend toward more foreign-born labor.

Some of those groups have also urged lawmakers to find a way to let current undocumented workers stay in the country. Without that, they say, farms across New York could lose workers and have a hard time finding replacements.

Bargaining cooperatives for dairy farmers have endorsed Mr. McHugh's approach, as has New York Farm Bureau and First Pioneer Farm Credit. A lobbyist who works for dairy groups said the bill would be a "big help" even though it does not address workers already here.

The legislation resembles part of the comprehensive immigration reform that fizzled in Congress. At one point, dairy lobbyists won a provision to extend the H2A guest worker visa program to dairy and sheep farms. Workers would have had to leave the country before applying to stay, however, a process that Mr. McHugh bypassed in his bill.

Sheep farmers already can use the program through a regulatory process, but Mr. McHugh's bill would put the practice into law, his office said.

Although the bill has little chance of moving this year and would have to be reintroduced in the next Congress, Mr. McHugh said it can be a marker, giving farm groups something to rally around when the issue heats up again next year.