Citizenship Jan 3

Mike Stephens

News Reporter

The California Farm Bureau to support petitions for citizenship

California's largest membership agricultural organization is partnering with immigration advocates to support U.S. citizenship applications from farm employees who may be eligible for naturalization.

California accounts for one in every three farmworkers in the United States, with an estimated 800,000 people working in agriculture at some point during the year.

Now the California Farm Bureau, whose nearly 31,000 members include farmers, ranchers and agricultural businesses across the state, will pay for U.S. citizenship application services and legal counseling for eligible employees of any Farm Bureau member seeking assistance on their behalf.

The program is the result of a new partnership between the California Farm Bureau and the National Immigration Forum. The Farm Bureau has signed a contract with the NIF for the naturalization application and counseling services.

The Immigration Forum's first-ever citizenship partnership with a state agricultural organization was announced Dec. 6 at the California Farm Bureau's 103rd Annual Meeting in Orange County.

Bryan Little, the Farm Bureau's director of employment policy and chief operating officer of the Farm Employers Labor Service, said the citizenship partnership is intended to help stabilize the workforce in the United States' leading agricultural economy.

The services provided will include citizenship eligibility reviews for farm employees, application preparation and case management. The partnership will also provide referrals for legal reviews of citizenship petitions.