Giving Compass' Take:

• The Agricultural Worker Program Act could help to bring stability to undocumented farmworkers, their communities, their agricultural employers, and our food system as a whole.

• How can funders and policymakers help our food system by programs like this? 

• Here's a look at the struggles of undocumented youth in America. 

Immigration policy in the United States is closely intertwined with agriculture. It is estimated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey that approximately 47 percent of the roughly 2.4 million farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented. Earlier this year, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Zoe Lofgren, both of California, introduced the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019 (H.R. 641)—a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the U.S. If this bill becomes a law it would create a two-step process for undocumented farmworkers and their families to gain legal status and eventually citizenship in the U.S. This legalization process could bring stability to farmworkers, their communities, their agricultural employers, and the food system as a whole.

Food Tank had the chance to speak with Adrienne DerVartanian, Director of Immigration & Labor Rights at Farmworker Justice, about the Agricultural Worker Program Act. “Our mission is to improve the wages, working, and living conditions of farmworkers, as well as to improve their access to healthcare, their access to justice, and their access to immigration status,” DerVartanian told Food Tank. “We believe that immigration status is a huge barrier to the ability of farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions and to access the healthcare that they need and that’s why this a top priority for us.”

Read the full article on undocumented farmworkers by Madeleine Traynor at Food Tank.