Making ‘the List’ Gives Some Farms a Break on Aliens

Arundo donax-- the Spanish reed for musical instruments--is a perishable crop. So are Christmas trees, cut flowers, corn, herbs, hops and tobacco, the Agriculture Department ruled Tuesday, as it decided on a long-awaited list that will be issued today in connection with the new immigration law.

Illegal immigrants harvesting crops named on the list will qualify for legal-resident status under the law. Among those excluded are workers in livestock, cotton, soybeans, poultry, wool and sugar cane operations.

The action is intended to fill a gap in the immigration law, which left to the Agriculture Department the task of defining “fruits, vegetables and other perishable commodities.”

“This is the most far-reaching labor law in this century,” said Al French, a labor specialist at the Agriculture Department who coordinated the rule-making. “It affects millions of people.”

Critics immediately attacked the work definitions as “outrageous” because of their narrow scope, and vowed to continue lobbying for changes.

The Agriculture Department said that commodities not produced by “field work” are not covered, and it defined field work as “any employment performed on agricultural lands for planting, cultural practices, cultivating, growing, harvesting, drying, processing or packing any fruits, vegetables or other perishable commodities.”

It said that field work “does not refer to activities that occur in a processing plant or packinghouse.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that as many as 500,000 illegal immigrants work on the nation’s 2 million farms. Nationwide, cash receipts from farm products totaled $142 billion in 1985, and California’s $14 billion share was the largest of all the states.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has predicted that at least 300,000 illegal farm workers will seek status as legal U.S. residents when the program begins in June. Activists, saying that there are far more illegal farm workers than had been believed, had pressed for a more expansive list of covered crops.

Beginning June 1, illegal immigrants who were employed in farm work in the United States at least 90 days during the year ended last May may apply for legal status. This program is separate from the law’s overall amnesty, under which non-farm workers may apply if they have lived in the country since before January, 1982.

Farm employers seeking to protect their labor supply had mounted an intense lobbying campaign at the Agriculture Department to have their crops included on the list of perishables.

In addition to establishing workers’ eligibility to claim legal status, inclusion of a grower’s products on the Agriculture Department list has another advantage.

Under the law, growers who are determined to be handling perishables will be exempt from employer sanctions until Dec. 1, 1988. That is 18 months after the beginning of sanctions against other employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants (Nov. 6, 1987).

Also, identification as growers of perishable commodities would be the basis of Labor and Agriculture departments’ determinations of how many foreign seasonal workers would be allowed to enter the country each year if a shortage of such labor develops.

C. H. Fields, assistant director of national affairs at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that the Agriculture Department’s proposals “exclude two-thirds of American agriculture,” largely because livestock, the nation’s major farm product, is not covered.

“We think it’s outrageous that sugar cane is not included,” said Nancy Bothne, executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund. She noted that sugar beets are on the list. “It’s clear that this was a political decision, not based on any rational considerations.”

Angry Debate Expected

Bothne’s reaction presaged an outpouring of anger that the Agriculture Department is certain to face between now and May 13, the period allowed for public comment on the proposed rules.

French said that the department went through 10 drafts of the regulations and “tried very diligently” to follow the “clear guidelines” from Congress.

Other products covered include shrubs, seedlings, fruit and nut orchards, potted plants, spices and herbs. Honey, earthworms and wool are not covered.