POINTS IN SUPPORT OF COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM

January 2006

 

The horse industry has long sought a solution to its labor and immigration challenges.  Initial efforts focused on reform of the existing H-2A guest worker program.  More recent efforts have also included approaches to retain experienced workers and transition in an orderly way to wider reliance on guest worker programs. 

 

The horse industry and the rest of agriculture is seeing actual labor shortages, rather than just shortages of alien workers.  These shortages are expected to get worse in the upcoming months as employers struggle to retain their work force and hire new employees. 

 

In December, the House of Representatives passed a narrow, expensive, and anti-employer border security and internal enforcement bill (H.R.4437).  If it becomes law, it would impose new burdens, fines, and penalties on employers; but it would do nothing to provide labor-intensive agriculture access to a legal and stable workforce. 

 

The Senate is expected to take up the issue shortly.  It is vital that the Senate pass a bill that ensures U.S. employers access to a legal workforce.  Specific to the needs of agriculture, the following are reasons for reform: 

 

  • Despite our best efforts to recruit U.S. workers, horse owners, breeders and training facilities still need legal H-2A foreign workers to fill positions involving the production, training and care of horses.

 

  • The horse industry employs many American workers.  But there are not enough to fill what are termed semi-skilled jobs, but which are in reality positions requiring familiarity with horses.  These jobs are important to our industry and to the health and welfare of our horses.

 

  • Before alien workers are allowed to be hired, a stringent, formal and regulated application process must be completed.  U.S. employers must demonstrate to state and U.S. Departments of Labor that there are no available U.S. workers to fill the positions.  Once that is accomplished, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service must approve the admission of foreign workers.  This approval is transmitted to foreign consuls where the alien worker receives his approved visa.

 

  • The horse industry relies on the H-2A program as the only way it can legally hire alien workers for temporary positions when they cannot find Americans for the job.

 

  • Without the manpower provided by H-2A seasonal short-term workers, the horse industry could not operate or would be short-staffed.  This could result in the termination of other jobs in the industry filled by U.S. workers.

 

  • Despite the best efforts of breeders and ranchers, seasonal and physically demanding jobs in the horse industry do not attract enough American workers with the knowledge of how to handle and care for horses.  As a result, the industry relies on alien labor to fill some positions. 

 

  • The American Horse Council’s 2005 Economic Impact of the Horse Industry on the United States report documents that the horse industry has a total economic impact of $102 billion, supports 1.4 million jobs, pays $2 billion in taxes and includes 4.7 million Americans.  For every job we lose, we expect to also lose other jobs in related economic sectors – equipment, boarding, transportation, and services – that are supported by the horse industry.  These are jobs filled by native-born Americans. 

 

  • Congress is considering a range of border security and enforcement measures that are important and needed.  Yet, many of these measures, if enacted without additional changes to the process to hire legal foreign workers, could have serious unintended consequences for the horse industry, other U.S. businesses and the U.S. economy.

 

  • U.S. agriculture supports more enforcement and border security, but an enforcement-only approach offers an incomplete solution to the problem of illegal immigration and alien employment.  Despite significant increases in resources and personnel, we have not put a dent in the numbers; in fact, illegal immigration has increased.  And we will not completely solve the problem unless we tackle the root cause, the pull of opportunities here and the lack of sufficient legal channels.  We need a comprehensive approach to solve illegal immigration.

 

  • The Senate should pass a comprehensive immigration reform package.  In addition to border security measures, such a package must include a temporary worker program for the unique needs of labor-intensive horse and agriculture industries.  It must also include a realistic means for trained and experienced workers who lack proper legal status to earn status subject to conditions like future work and lawful behavior.  The AgJOBS legislation (S.359) is a model for a workable approach to these needed reforms. 

 

  • Please support comprehensive immigration reform that not only protects the U.S. and U.S. jobs but also makes it possible for those industries, like the horse industry, that must rely on legal foreign workers to have access to such workers in a reasonable, federally-regulated program.