H.R. 5038 won in the House but the battle is not over
The vote in the House of Representatives on Dec. 12 on H.B. 5038, Farm Workforce Modernization Act, was: Ayes, 260; Nays, 160. As you might expect all of Oregon’s House members voted in favor of rewarding law breakers. Let’s hope President Trump will veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.
“Farm Workforce Modernization Act” would do George Orwell proud. To return to stoop labor workers instead of mechanization is the anthesis of “modernization.” To reward law breakers at the expense of farmers who obey laws is a slap in the face to the farmers who obey labor laws.
As Roy Beck of NumbersUSA reported: “226 Democrats took the side of law-breaking agri-business employers and their illegal workers against the legal workers in the ag industry. Joining them in supporting the amnesty for employers who have massively broken immigration laws for years were 34 Republicans voting YES. …”
All 5 of Oregon’s Representatives voted to pass this betrayal of U.S. workers, increasing profits for employers by depressing workers’ wages and taking job opportunities away from citizens. Standing up for U.S. citizen workers were 151 Republicans, 3 Democrats and one Independent. You can see the record of the vote, showing how each member voted, here.
Hopefully the bill can be stopped in the Senate. H.R. 5038 authorizes a major amnesty that will have far-reaching, harmful results for our country, now and in the future. This article gives a vivid picture:
FARMING LIKE IT’S 1699; It’s cheaper to invest in congressmen than in automation, by Mark Krikorian, in The National Review Dec. 10, 2019. [Mr. Krikorian is a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues. He has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) since 1995.]
Excerpt:
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the hilariously misnamed Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would “modernize” agricultural labor right back to the 17th century.
At the core of the bill are several indentured-labor schemes intended to tie current illegal aliens and future “temporary” workers to farm jobs for four to ten years before giving them green cards. The reason for the indenture system is that farmers know from experience that once the illegal aliens or visa workers get green cards, almost all will flee the medieval labor system that prevails in much of fresh fruit and vegetable agriculture.
Fact sheets on the bill are here and here. It provides immediate amnesty to illegal aliens (and their dependents) who have (or claim to have) worked at least part time in agriculture over the past two years. The number of beneficiaries is estimated to be at least 1.5 million. . . .
See the complete article here.
