What is the legal status of farmworkers in the US?
According to the National Agricultural Workers’ Survey of 2000: 52% of respondents identified as undocumented; 22% identified as citizens; 24% as legal permanent residents; and 2% as other (student visa, asylum, refugee, etc.). Almost half of all documented farmworkers in this country are US citizens, and the overwhelming majority of foreign-born farmworkers are legal US residents.20 Please note that these figures do not include H2-A guest workers. It is of further note that in 1986 nearly 1.1 million undocumented workers gained legal status under the Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program made possible by the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act the same year.21 1 US Department of Agriculture 2 US Department of Labor , “Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey: (NAWS) 1997-1998 A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers,” 3 Student Action with Farmworkers, “United States Farmworker Fact Sheet;” Statistics from NAWS 2000 4 Total numb
