In light of the Senate failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and inaction from the House of Representatives, the White House, Department of Commerce and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a set of regulatory and administrative initiatives related to the enforcement and implementation of immigration laws.

DHS has issued its final rule that aims to establish safe-harbor procedures for employers who receive Social Security no-match letters as a result of this initiative. New York Farm Bureau (NYFB) is extremely concerned by the safe-harbor procedure rule.

The rule needs major clarifications, doesn’t protect employers from employment discrimination lawsuits, and makes it harder to secure a workforce for the agriculture industry in New York.

Also, in the future, DHS will reduce the number of documents that employers can accept to verify work eligibility and will raise the civil fines imposed on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. These new initiatives are outlined in a guidance document that was sent to members and is also available in the members’ only section of the NYFB website. This document was also sent to the New York Congressional Delegation to inform them of the issue and to strongly urge them to address immigration reform this fall.

The agriculture industry desperately needs both a reformed temporary agricultural labor program and a solution for a yearround work force, including the ability to adjust the status of present skilled agricultural employees who want to work on farms.

NYFB will continue to advocate the need for immigration reform, including working to gain more clarification from DHS concerning Social Security no-match letters, recommendations for the Bush Administration’s purposed H2A reforms, and new lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.

Clearly, immigration reform is needed to provide a permanent fix to the problem of illegal immigration and farm labor shortages, or agriculture faces an uncertain future. NYFB encourages its members to contact your representatives in Congress and to push for immigration reform.