The green industry faced another setback in its pursuit of comprehensive immigration reform when the Senate failed to advance the bill June 28. The comprehensive immigration bill stalled after a critical procedural vote failed 53-46. Sixty votes were required to advance the bill.
Conventional wisdom says it’s not likely the Senate will pass the bill now, says Craig Regelbrugge, vice president of government relations for the American Nursery & Landscape Association.
“It could be brought back to the floor at a later date,” says Tom Delaney, the Professional Landcare Network’s director of government affairs, “but the prospect of the legislation being resurrected in the near future seems unlikely after [Thursday’s] vote.”
No matter the doubt surrounding the bill, industry members cannot disengage, Regelbrugge says. The challenges in the labor market aren’t going to let up anytime soon, he says, noting the status quo will be one of tighter borders, raids and employer targeting, as well as a probable increase in state and local laws and ordinances surrounding immigration. “Colorado, Oklahoma and Georgia are the poster children for what we’re going to see – an absolute flood of state and local laws and ordinances,” Regelbrugge says.He hopes all of these pressures will “keep people at the table to get something done.”
Regarding H-2B, the repeat-worker exemption cap will expire on September 30. There’s a chance, Delaney says, that efforts to pass an H-2B fix like the one provided in the Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act of 2007 (S. 988 and H.R. 1843) will received greater scrutiny due to the media attention surrounding the comprehensive debate.
While more scrutiny is a possibility, Regelbrugge says, regarding agriculture and seasonal jobs, the industry has “won the debate more than we lost it in that Americans aren’t lining up to do these jobs.”