California may grant permanent residency to undocumented ag laborers under a new law that lays the groundwork for Gov. Gavin Newsom to broker a deal with the Biden administration to identify farmworkers as essential and permit them to work and stay in the U.S.
The national farmworker shortage has forced many California growers to turn to the costly federal H-2A guestworker visa program to find reliable workers willing to take on the difficult work. The escalating workforce issue has combined with a powerful labor surge that has ushered in a suite of new bills to expand worker rights—including a new card check law that aims to boost farmworker union membership.
Farm and labor groups—as well as California’s Democratic supermajority—have locked arms behind Senate Bill 831, which authorizes the pilot program on farmworker residency. While the bill cuts a narrow focus within immigration policy, proponents say it is changing the narrative in California and other states.
State Sen. Anna Caballero of Merced said SB 831 would bring farmworkers out of the shadows and help rural communities in the process, in a conversation on her measure at the Agri-Pulse Food & Ag Issues Summit West in June.
Since then, the bill steadily progressed through policy committees and floor hearings along party line votes and with little discussion, ending up as one bill on a long list of measures that gained Newsom’s signature this year. The governor held no press conference on SB 831 and issued no statement on its signing. His office did not respond to multiple Agri-Pulse requests for comment.
Yet Newsom’s ink on the legislation is less than a month old and the provisions will not take effect until January, which will trigger the start of a potentially long implementation process. The administration will open a dialogue with the Justice Department with the goal of ultimately establishing an agreement on a small pilot program to serve as a demonstration project. The only criteria spelled out in SB 831 is that the agricultural employees have lived in the country for five years, have good moral character and have not committed a crime. The program also must conform to existing federal immigration laws.
Sen. Anna Caballero, D-MercedYarelyn Trujillo, Caballero’s legislative aide who orchestrated the effort behind the bill, told Agri-Pulse the program would likely mirror federal policy on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA, which does not provide a path to citizenship, allows for renewable two-year work permits for those born outside the U.S. but brought to the country as young children. The program has been mired in years-long legal battles and a federal court ruled it illegal last month, though that decision is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Caballero has also said the bill borrows from the European blue card model for migrant workers, which has gained traction in Washington, but failed to break through the congressional gridlock. In 2019 the late-Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., introduced a bill to provide immediate legal blue card eligibility for established migrant farmworkers to continue working in the U.S., along with a pathway to longer-term permanent residency status and possible citizenship for workers and their families.
The State Legislature has made similar attempts with permanent residency programs as well. In 2006, the state passed Assembly Bill 2060 by then-Assemblymember Hector De La Torre, who now serves on the Air Resources Board. The program has helped legal permanent residents to obtain citizenship, building momentum for more residency proposals in subsequent years.
Trujillo expects Caballero’s office to have more conversations with Newsom’s office as it forms a plan for SB 831. She stressed that the measure is just the starting point and urged farmworkers to be patient in the meantime.
“This is the beginning of something that can completely change the life of farmworkers,” she said, adding that the program would allow the workers to work with dignity without the fear of deportation. “We're hoping this is going to work great for California and our people and it is going to start opening doors for other states.”
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Trujillo also hopes it will push the federal government to create an immigration program that benefits workers in agriculture and in other sectors and states. She called the passage of SB 831 a big win that “shows it's the right time for us to do something” and for California to take the lead.
Casey Creamer, president and CEO of California Citrus Mutual, which supported SB 831 alongside the California Fresh Fruit Association, said the measure will help drive the narrative on immigration reform and “provide some certainty for the people here working hard every day to bring food to our tables.” He told Agri-Pulse the issue extends beyond agriculture to the workers, businesses and communities that depend on the industry.
Creamer stressed that SB 831 is not an end-all, be-all solution and the focus remains on Congress. He noted that agricultural organizations and labor groups like United Farm Workers have also backed the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a negotiated compromise that would have expanded the H-2A program and provided a path to legal status for existing domestic workers. Several farm groups have been working at the national level to educate rural and urban districts across the country on the need for reforms.
“It's a continuous process and all-hands-on-deck with our elected officials,” said Creamer.
Immigration reform has little chance of passing Congress for the foreseeable future. Leading congressional Republicans say the southern border must be secure before they will consider such legislation, including ag labor reform.
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