New proposed laws raise the threat level to immigrant workers. Rep. Lamar Smith, Republican from Texas, has introduced bills that would change the situation from bad to worse. In mid- September the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on a 22 to 13 vote, passed the “Legal Workforce Act” or the H.R. 2885. This bill was first introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith and 53 cosigners as H.R. 2164 back in June of this year.
H.R. 2885 is worse than previous proposed legislation (H.R. 2164), as it would not only require everyone to be verified through the E-Verify system, it would also require every single seasonal worker (farm
workers and temporary workers or temps) to fill out a new I-9 form every year. Current law exempts seasonal workers from having to complete a new I-9 if they work for the same employer every year.
If H.R. 2885 becomes law, farm workers and temporary workers from coast to coast will suffer the same consequences as the hundreds of thousands of families that are being uprooted, torn apart, and destroyed because of I-9 audits and the E-verify system right now. This bill will help the Obama Administration, who since 2009 decided to go after workers with the E-Verify and ICE I-9 audits, instead of workplace raids.
As proposed in June, nationwide mandatory E-verify was not well received by temporary work agencies and especially big agriculture business. Big agricultural enterprises wanted seasonal workers exempted from the bill because current labor laws already permit easy exploitation of men and women working in the fields and all workers classified as temporary workers.
To assure big agriculture that it would still have a large, readily exploitable pool of workers, Lamar Smith introduced in the Judiciary Committee H.R. 2847, a “Guest Worker Program.”
This amounts to promising agriculture modern day slavery, creating a group of workers without rights. This would throw the US back to the 1857 days of the Dred Scott Decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford) where the US Supreme Court ruled that, “A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a ‘citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States.” They held that therefore the US Constitution gave him no protection, no rights. Under HR 2847 workers can be brought into the US as “guest workers” and find themselves virtually in the same condition as Dred Scott. They would not be covered by US Labor Laws and would have no rights under the US Constitution and could be persecuted by their employers if they complain. Thrilled with this possibility, big agriculture has swung its support to the twin horror bills introduced by Rep. Smith.
The rich one percent of this country now owns most of the wealth of this country, and they have absolute control of all our political system and elected officials. You can see their power and influence in the passage of mandatory E-Verify bill in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and future approval of the “Guest Worker Program” bill. None of the bills are designed to help and support poor working families.
They’re designed to benefit the rich and their interests.
