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In rural areas like Congressional Districts 23 and 24, farmers rely on undocumented immigrants, especially year-round operations like dairy farmers, because those workers are largely ineligible for the H-2A visas. While immigration was one of the major issues Republicans campaigned on last year, they have not proposed any comprehensive plans. Farmers want legal farm workers; they want changes to the immigration process. Republicans like Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy vote against all reforms. Instead, they push enforcement and punishment. Newsweek reported (9/8/25), that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are putting an $8 billion farming business in New York at risk.
Democrats have proposed legislation to fix our broken immigration system. Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca) has proposed H.R. 3227 Farmworker Modernization Act of 2025. This act would provide a legal status for farm workers, protecting them from deportation and providing a stable labor force for the employers. It also streamlines and expands the H-2A visas to include year-round jobs and reduces bureaucratic delays. Arizona Senator Rubin Gallego proposed the Securing the Border and Fueling Economic Prosperity Act in May this year. This act would bolster border patrol staffing and the use of advanced technology for drug detection. Additionally, the legislation would overhaul the asylum system and address the root causes of migration. Our Congressional Representatives continue to squash immigration reform. They will not address the issue of immigration because having a campaign slogan is more important to our Republican representatives than solving real issues facing their constituents.
William Fine
Brockport
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NY dairy farmers hire workers who lack legal status because citizens do not want to take jobs that have such poor wages, benefits and social status. There is plenty of money in food – but it goes to increase the already huge profits of companies like Walmart, JPS, Tyson, Amazon… The people who do the work – farmworkers and family-scale farmers – are underpaid, and undervalued! The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will give legal status to some farmworkers but leave many in an even worse situation since the bill makes E-verify MANDATORY for all farm businesses.
Sorry, you and your POLs in DC have no credibility whatsoever on this issue. The last administration said it couldn’t do anything about the hoards of illegals streaming across the border without a act of Congress (and his party controlled Congress).The current President sealed the border shut within weeks. Citizens are not going to support bringing in foreign workers until they are confident we have a long term secure border. I’m sure Mr Trump would love to negotiate a guest worker program if that had border integrity provisions included.
Mr. Mars,
Your answer doesn’t seem to address the problem of farmers finding workers.
Brian Dinitto