Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) is proposing an amendment to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill that would protect working class Americans from Big Agriculture’s desire to flood the industry’s workforce with more foreign workers.
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee slipped provisions in the funding bill to massively expand the number of foreign workers in the United States labor market, particularly in blue collar industries, as data shows millions of Americans are struggling to reenter and stay in the workforce.
The $91.5 billion funding bill, as currently written, loosens H-2A visa rules so that more industries related to the agricultural sector could import foreign workers. The bill rewrites the program so that jobs do not have to be seasonal or temporary.
Already, the H-2A visa program allows U.S. farms to outsource an unlimited number of agricultural jobs. Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and David Valadao (R-CA), who count agriculture special interest groups as major donors, are reportedly responsible for the provisions.
Clyde filed an amendment that would strike the H-2A provisions from the funding bill.
“Strikes Section 407, which allows certain nonimmigrants to be admitted to the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2024 to perform agricultural labor or services, regardless of whether that labor or service is temporary or seasonal,” a summary of Clyde’s amendment reads.
Increasing H-2A visas would come even as U.S. farms are repeatedly found using the program to merely import cheaper foreign workers. Last month, a Washington farm reached a $3.4 million settlement for firing its mostly female farmworkers and replacing them with mostly male foreign H-2A visa workers.
Likewise, Clyde is looking to ensure that the funding bill does not spend millions in taxpayer money to fund President Joe Biden’s proposed Release and Reporting Management (RRM) program which is in its initial stages.
Biden’s DHS is hoping to use RRM to release more border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior instead of detaining them. The program would see left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) secure lucrative contracts to provide social services to released illegal aliens.
“Prohibits funds to be used to implement the ‘Release and Reporting Management’ Program and prohibits community and social services in any ‘Alternatives to Detention’ Program,” Clyde’s amendment reads.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
