WASHINGTON – Meatpackers could hire employees through an agricultural guest worker program for the first time under a visa program proposed by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee chairman on Friday.
Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who oversees the legal code, said he would examine the immigration system issue by issue "to ensure we get immigration reform right." The Senate is working on a comprehensive reform bill that includes a separate path to citizenship for undocumented farm workers.
The agricultural guest worker program proposed by Goodlatte would be a replacement for the H-2A program, which critics say is slow and overly bureaucratic. The new program would allow up to 500,000 workers a year to enter the country for jobs with an initial span of three years. It does not offer a permanent legal status for illegal immigrants.
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