Farm Labor Reform & Immigration

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Immigration and farm labor are uniquely linked, according to Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican. Labor is one of the topics farmers are bringing up during Farm Bill Listening sessions. Tillis says labor and immigration reform must happen together…

“You're not going to get one without the other, and you're not going to get any movement on immigration or labor reform without border security. And Senator Bozeman mentioned this where, if all we do is come up with good policy on labor, then that sends a signal that more people should come over illegally, that's why the two have to be managed in tandem and that's something I'm working on and hope to get done in this Congress.”

As for the Farm Bill, Tillis says risk management is top of mind…

“We’re dealing with risk management assumptions that were set back in 2012, and now we're in 2023. So, I think it's updating them and actually even allowing some commodities that don't even have access to the programs we already have in place to expand it. I think it's probably the two most important things we need to do in the Farm Bill. And then, we need to make sure things don't get into the Farm Bill that have nothing to do with farming, and that's going to be a big challenge, too.”

That’s Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.