A bill winding its way through the U.S. Senate has real potential to create a win-win situation for farm workers who aren’t legal residents of the United States and the growers who depend on this willing and able work force to harvest their crops. It’s the Agriculture Jobs Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act.

This bill is attracting strong bipartisan support from far left (Sen Ted. Kennedy, D- Mass.) and the far right (Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho).

But aside from its political success at bridging barriers in Congress, this bill has the potential of unlocking a work force that for too long has been spoken of only in hushed voices by growers. It also could liberate a segment of our population who work in fear and hide in their leisure.

Erik Nicholson, the Pacific Northwest regional director of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, said the bill would grant undocumented farm workers temporary legal residency if they can show they’ve worked at least 100 days during 12 consecutive months in the 18 months before the bill was introduced. Later they can earn permanent residency by documenting 360 days of work during the next three to six years.

So far, this reform would only apply to undocumented workers in the agricultural industry. Perhaps it will set the stage for other wise reforms.

Under this bill, it’s estimated that 500,000 undocumented workers would become legal permanent residents in the United States, among them undoubtedly will be farmworkers right here in northeast Oregon, where agriculture is the king of all industries. Nicholson estimates as many as 25,000 farmworkers in Oregon will gain legal status.

This should take a heavy load off the minds of growers who depend on a stable work force to ensure crops make it to market. But more importantly, this bill is about treating people with the respect and honor they deserve for powering the engine of local economies. Without these people – most of them from Latin America – our economies would suffer and the repercussions would be felt all the way to Main Street.

Congress and the American people owe it to these workers to grant them legal status.

– East Oregonian