Indiana Farm Bureau presses for immigration legislation

The farm advocacy organization took part Wednesday in a “Day of Action” in which a coalition of business groups – including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers – pressed federal lawmakers to act on immigration legislation that has stalled in the House.

Kyle Cline, national policy adviser for Indiana Farm Bureau, said immigrants account for 80 percent of the people hired to work for American farms. But a federal cap on guest-worker visas has resulted in a labor shortage, he said, including in Indiana – particularly for dairy producers in the northern part of the state and melon growers in the southern part.

“The key issue undermining their expansion and further investment is labor. They just simply cannot find enough workers to work in their fields, to work in their production facilities there on the farm,” Cline said in a conference call.

Guest workers, on average, earn $11 to $12 an hour, he said.