Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson advocated for a more simplified agriculture working visa program Tuesday, but played down prospects that mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration would harm Florida farms.
When asked what would happen if 1 million people were deported from Florida, Simpson said, “I’m not sure it does anything to the ag industry. … I don’t think there’s a million criminals here in the state of Florida that need to be deported.”
He said “the vast majority” of farmers are using H2A visas, a program allowing foreign nationals to work for American agriculture operations on a temporary basis. Simpson advocated for the visa process to be simplified to increase small-farm access to the program.
About two-thirds of crop farmworkers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and about two in five of them are not legally authorized to work in the country, Stateline reported.
“It is such a convoluted, federal government-upped process, and they really hurt our small farmers to have the ability to get to the H2A program. It needs to be simplified,” Simpson said following his report to the Senate Agriculture Committee Tuesday. “… I hope President Trump, and I know they will, he cares about the farming industry, if they will simplify that process and let smaller farmers have access to H2A workers, we will not have any of those kind of problems here in the state of Florida.”
Housing farm workers
Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican from Hillsborough County, filed a bill in December allowing farmers to offer housing for “legally verified agricultural workers.”
A similar measure passed both chambers unanimously last year, although Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it, citing a lack of penalties and enforcement for farms housing undocumented workers.
Collins told the Phoenix Tuesday that he anticipates amendments to the bill.
“This bill, we’re going to work with the governor’s office,” Collins said. “He vetoed this, and I actually stand by his veto because we have more work to do. There is always more that can be done. We’ll tighten this up. If we need to work on stiffer penalties, we’re going to work on stiffer penalties. But what we have to do is make sure that no other farmers lose their farms because of inability to house this H2A visa program on their lands.”
Simpson said he thinks the measure is important and that Collins is “doing the right thing,” but called for penalties for housing undocumented immigrants.
“Let’s make it easier for that program, and let’s have a robust H2A housing program this year that the governor can sign, that would include the penalties if you decide to house illegals in those houses,” Simpson said.
–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
