Although comprehensive immigration reform may be months or years away, Congress can take action now on the AgJOBS bill, a critical piece of legislation that would grant temporary "blue card" status to undocumented workers and potentially lead to permanent residency and allow employers to hire legal laborers. It's a major compromise between farm worker advocates and major agricultural employers. 

The entire food system would fall apart without undocumented workers, who make up about 80 percent of farm laborers and are responsible for harvesting a huge portion of our produce. California workers alone produce half our fruit, vegetables, and nuts and a quarter of our dairy. As U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently explained, food prices would skyrocket if we deported the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S. To defray these costs, we'd have to flood our market with foreign imports. It would be a far from sustainable system. We cannot survive without farm workers, and AgJOBS would serve as a humane, practical, win-win solution. 

AgJOBS legislation sits stalled in both the House and the Senate. It must be pushed through! Let's tell Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and committee chairs Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to move it through committees for a full Congressional vote.