On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate opted not to attach the AgJOBS bill - sponsored by Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and supported by legal services programs, farmworker advocacy groups, and agribusiness interests - to a supplemental appropriations bill. The AgJOBS bill, more formally known as the Agricultural Job, Opportunities, enefits and Security Act of 2005, would legalize pproximately 500,000 farmworkers. The Senate needed 60 votes to prevent a filibuster against attaching AgJOBs to the supplemental appropriations bill. While a majority of 53 Senators voted in favor, it was less than the 60 needed. However, Senators Craig and Kennedy believe the majority of votes indicate an opportunity to pass AgJOBS later this year.

On the same day, an attempt by Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to add an alternative guestworker proposal to the appropriations bill also failed, because it received only 21 votes. The Chambliss Amendment proposed to change the H-2A program by lowering wage rates, removing labor protections, and reducing government oversight, and would not have provided undocumented workers or guestworkers a path to legal immigrant status. It also would have prohibited LSC grantees from representing guestworkers for violation of their rights after they left the country. Bruce Goldstein, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Farmworker Justice Fund, says, "The overwhelming defeat [of the Chambliss Amendment] shows that the old efforts to enact a one sided guestworker bills won't win anything close to a majority in the Congress." Farmworker Immigration Legislation, at http://www.fwjustice.org/LEGISLAT.HTM (Apr. 22, 2005); also based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff. See also Legal Services E-lert of Feb. 20, 2005.