A labor shortage is causing hardships across the U.S. farm economy, and the administration and Congress need to pass comprehensive immigration reform to help alleviate the problem, panelists said during a virtual press conference.

“This issue of immigration is important right now, especially with the labor shortages that we have that are causing, of course, shortages in products and services … especially now with the highest level of inflation in 40 years,” said Daniel Garza, president of the LIBRE Initiative.

The major driver is 10 million unfilled jobs,  including acute shortage of workers in the dairy sector.

“So even though we have low unemployment numbers, it doesn’t tell the full story,” he said.

The U.S. lost 2 million new immigrant workers in 2020 alone due to pandemic slowdowns, and immigrants with work visas have been losing their jobs due to massive backlogs in the federal government’s renewal system, he said.

“It’s caused these massive ripple effects across our economy, and it is impacting the everyday lives of Americans,” he said.

The panelists spoke about the labor shortages in healthcare, construction, hospitality, high-tech industries, transportation and agriculture and the critical roles immigrants play in those sectors.

The Jan. 26 event was organized by the National Immigration Forum and the LIBRE Initiative, which promotes free enterprise and opportunity for members of the Hispanic community.

On the farming front, Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said 90% of dairy farm workers in Idaho are foreign-born.

“Because the dairy industry is a year-round employer, we don’t have access to the H-2A program or any other visa programs. … That speaks a lot to what the legal status is going to be of our average dairy farm worker,” he said.

In 2012 — the last time Idaho dairy producers would have said their dairies were fully staffed — there were more than 8,000 employees. Today, there are less than 5,000.

In addition, Idaho is milking 100,000 more cows than the 550,000 head it had in 2012, he said.

“So we’re seeing our industry continue to grow but that workforce shrink,” he said.

There are not enough workers to fill jobs, and some sort of immigration reform is needed to fill that, he said.

“The end result is that’s causing small businesses to go out,” he said.

Idaho went from 560 dairy farm families in 2012 to 400 today, he said.

“So we’ve lost a number of small businesses, and labor shortages is one of those pressure points that caused that,” he said.

Idaho dairy producers would look to the Farm Workforce Modernization Act as a reasonable, bipartisan solution to the problem, he said.

The bill provides temporary status for certified agricultural workers, their spouses and children and optional earned legal status for long-time workers.

The bill passed the U.S. House, and dairy producers hope it can move forward in the Senate, he said.

The bill was negotiated between employers and those that represent the employees, he said.

“Everybody had a seat at the table in trying to negotiate that bill, and we see it as a very reasonable way forward. And we’re hopeful that we can see something move in the Senate,” he said.