[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H7824-H7826]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     ACT NOW ON IMMIGRATION CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Tlaib). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


            Honoring Winton W. Carter on His 100th Birthday

  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, on September 30, 2019, northeast Florida 
will help Winton Carter celebrate his 100th birthday.
  The year Mr. Carter was born, World War I formally ended with the 
Treaty of Versailles, alcohol was officially illegal with the formal 
start of Prohibition, and Boston's Babe Ruth was traded to the New York 
Yankees at the end of the season.
  Even more amazing is the life Mr. Carter has led serving our country.
  Mr. Carter received a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel in 
his thigh while under continuous fire, fighting the Japanese on the 
island of Saipan in World War II. He was there for the famous raising 
of the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Mr. Carter 
also later fought in the Korean war.
  After 22 years in the military, he retired as a Marine master 
sergeant and served a total of 40 years in government service, which 
included recruiting future Marine heroes.
  Mr. Carter is a widower, having celebrated 60 years of marriage to 
his wife, Norma Jean. He is the father of two, and he loves to talk 
about the Lord.
  Therefore, it is on this day, September 19, that I proudly 
acknowledge Mr. Winton W. Carter on the House floor, and I ask you to 
join me in wishing him an early happy birthday.


               Observing National POW/MIA Recognition Day

  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this time to honor 
those who were prisoners of war and those who remain missing in action, 
as well as their families, in observance of National POW/MIA 
Recognition Day.
  We are forever indebted to those who sacrificed everything so that we 
may enjoy the freedoms granted to us by the Constitution.
  ``You are not forgotten.'' This is a central phrase of National POW/
MIA Recognition Day. It is our job as a nation to stand behind those 
who are currently serving, those who have served, and those who have 
never returned from service who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
  Through international relationships, many of those who have fallen 
have been returned back to our country and to their families, and we 
will continue to do the search and return our MIA soldiers. It is our 
responsibility as a nation to never forget or quit searching for the 
men and women who paid that ultimate price. We must continue to honor 
them in the years to come.


                 Honoring First Responder John Lankenau

  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this time to honor one 
of my constituents, John Lankenau.
  As the anniversary of 9/11 just passed, we must always remember those 
who we have lost and honor the heroes who sacrificed their lives for 
others.
  On September 11, 2001, Mr. Lankenau was assigned as a hazardous 
material specialist in Albany, New York. On that tragic day, as the 
second plane flew into the towers, Mr. Lankenau was requested to 
respond to New York City to assist first responders at Ground Zero.
  Upon arrival, Mr. Lankenau was requested by name to conduct the first 
hazard surveys of Ground Zero. He worked until early morning, taking 
air and soil samples on the wreckage site.
  Mr. Lankenau remembered how dangerous it was, maneuvering through the 
wreckage and fearing that there was a possibility that one of the 
adjacent buildings could collapse, causing more fatalities.
  He spent the next couple of weeks going back and forth from home, 
continuing to assess the hazards and the conditions at Ground Zero.
  It is my greatest pleasure to represent men like Mr. John Lankenau in 
the United States Congress. I commend him and the rest of the first 
responders on 9/11 for their character, their courage, and their 
commitment to serving others. I thank them, these true heroes, for 
their service.


          Congratulating University of Florida on Its Ranking

  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I would like to highlight my alma mater, the 
University of Florida, which I represent in Florida's District Three.
  The University of Florida, under the guidance of its president, Dr. 
Kent Fuchs, has again risen in the U.S. News and World Report rankings 
to number seven among all public universities in the United States. 
This is the third year in the row the University of Florida has 
advanced in that ranking.
  The University of Florida incorporates all health disciplines, is one 
of the largest engineering schools in the country, and has a top-rated 
veterinarian school, which I graduated from in 1983.

  It is just one of the few schools in the Nation to have won major 
sports team national championships and titles in football, basketball, 
and baseball.
  I guess that is why it is great to be a Florida Gator.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about another crisis that has not 
been dealt with on this House floor, and that crisis is the immigration 
crisis we have.
  We hear a lot about the climate crisis. Crises are the things that 
are happening right now that we must respond to. But so many of the 
things that we face in Congress are issues that may be a crisis for 
some along the border, or some who are being advanced by people coming 
into the country illegally, but if Congress were to act, these crises 
would go away.
  There is time to deal with climate change, and there is time to deal 
with the crisis on the border, but we must act.
  I have a photo here from June 2014, when my colleagues on the other 
side said there was a crisis, and it was under President Barack Obama. 
This is still going on at the border. I look at these people, and they 
look like people who want opportunity. They are coming to this country.
  I have this other photo, and there are families, women, children, 
husbands. They look like people who are wanting to come into this 
country for opportunity.
  Congress has failed, and it has not just failed this Nation, but it 
failed these people in the policies that we don't have because of 
political divide.
  We talk about how we want to fix the crisis on climate change, but we 
don't come together on that. We want to talk about the immigration 
crisis, but we don't come together on it because it becomes a wedge and 
a tool that people use in politics for the next election.
  They say, well, they are against that, and that is why you have to 
vote me back in.
  That happens on immigration. That is why immigration doesn't get 
fixed. I am convinced of that.

                              {time}  1900

  So we have proposed a guest worker program that will solve probably 
about 90 percent, what our estimates are, of the people who are coming 
across our southwest border.
  I think we are all in agreement that the people coming across our 
southwest border are not the rocket scientists; they are not the 
engineers; they are not the health professionals. They are the people 
who are working in the lower skills--agriculture, hospitality, and 
construction--but yet they are so needed in this country because, 
without them, this country won't work. We can't grow the fruits and 
vegetables, and we can't build the buildings.
  So what we have proposed is a guest worker program. If you would 
picture a banner, Madam Speaker, ``Guest Worker Program.''
  And understand, it is not immigration reform, because 
``immigration,'' if we use that word up here, they part.

[[Page H7825]]

This side blames the Republicans of wanting to deport everybody. On my 
side, we will say this side wants to give everybody amnesty. Neither is 
true. So they walk away and nothing gets done. We have seen this year 
after year for 36 years.
  So the banner bill will say, ``Guest Worker Program.'' It will have 
three silos: One will be agriculture, which is the one I am heading; 
one will have hospitality; and one will have construction.
  I will talk about the agriculture program.
  The way this works is it does three things: It creates a prescreened 
pool before people come into the country, which is number one. Number 
two is it addresses the people who are already here illegally. Number 
three, it reforms the H-2A program, which is a temporary seasonal 
program of 10 months, and it makes it stronger so it serves our 
producers better, but it also protects the migrant worker.
  This is something that should not be a partisan issue. This is 
something that I have shared personally in this Chamber with over 50 
Members of the House of Representatives in a bipartisan way; I have 
shared it on the Senate side in a bipartisan way; and we have shared it 
with outside industries around the country. In fact, I am getting calls 
from people from Wisconsin, from Indiana, from Pennsylvania, and from 
California who want this bill passed.
  Basically, what this does, briefly, is, on the H-2A program, which is 
a temporary worker visa program--for 10 months, it is supposed to be. 
The way the program works now is somebody will come in on an H-2A 
program for temporary work. They will get a waiver, and that waiver 
will be for 1 year. Then they can get another waiver up to 3 years.
  What we have seen is people just kind of fade off the grid, and they 
wind up being in America illegally. They may have come in legally, but 
then they transfer and become a person here illegally. Then they live 
in the shadows, and they are afraid to come out for fear of 
deportation.
  The other thing is they come in on an H-2A visa currently, and they 
may leave the agriculture permit that they came in on and work 
construction and get hired by construction. Or they may go into another 
field, and so the permit that allowed them to come in, they don't 
honor.
  So with our program, we tighten up the restrictions on H-2A. People 
come in on a guest worker H-2A visa that dedicates them to the sector 
of agriculture, and they are dedicated to be in that sector because 
that is what they have agreed to come in on. They can stay up to 11 
months is what we are proposing, then they go back home, and then they 
can come back.
  The other thing we do is the prescreening portion of this bill works 
this way:
  We will have a country-to-country agreement between, say, the country 
of Honduras and the United States. It is a state-to-State Department 
agreement. So, if a person from Honduras or anywhere in Central America 
wants to come to the United States, they apply. They must be a minimum 
of 18 years of age. They have to apply individually. If they are 
married and the spouse wants to come in, that spouse applies, but they 
have to be a minimum of 18, no children.
  They apply. That information from the country they come from goes to 
our State Department, and it would be basically passport information: 
their name, their address, age, and things like that. Our DHS will take 
that information. They will do a background check. Once they clear the 
background check, that person who applied as an applicant, they are 
permitted to come into the country, but only after a job is available.
  When a person applies, they can apply to a sector. Maybe it is dairy; 
maybe it is fruits and vegetables; or maybe it is a citrus program. 
Once they get accepted into the country and a job is available, they 
get issued what we call a GWIC card, which is short for ``guest worker 
identification card,'' and it will look like any other kind of 
identification. It will have smart card or smart chip technology. It 
will have the individual's picture on it.
  Once a person gets this card, they are permitted to be in the country 
for a 5-year period of time. For 5 years they can stay in this country, 
and they can renew 4\1/2\ years into the program. After that, they can 
continually do that, provided they stay a person of good standing in 
the Nation.
  They can get a driver's license number. It will be a guest worker 
driver's license number that has to be renewed every 5 years. It will 
start off in the State they get approved in and when they pass the 
test. But that will allow them to drive in the country legally.
  It gives them a chance to come into the country legally, whether they 
want to be a temporary worker or a 5-year, year-round worker.
  We have a restriction in there that they have to commit to work 75 
percent of the year in the agriculture sector, on the guest worker 
program for agriculture. That person has taken on the responsibility 
and commitment that they will work in ag, and ag only.
  On both programs with the H-2A or the 5-year guest worker program, 
that individual is automatically entered into the E-Verify system. So 
when our employers take somebody out of the pool, they are 
automatically using E-Verify.

  That person, again, is free to travel the country. If they come in, 
say they want to do citrus in Florida, that season is over usually by 
mid-June. They can go to North Carolina and work with another crop, or 
maybe the State of Washington or New York, and they can stay 
indefinitely in the country for that 5-year period of time. But they 
must work a minimum 75 percent of the year in the United States in 
agriculture.
  If they choose to leave agriculture and work in construction and they 
get picked up or found out and they get hired illegally by a 
contractor, what happens is they have broken the terms of their 
agreement, and they will be deported for that.
  That identification number will be a 15-digit identification number 
with the initials ``AG'' at the end of it for agriculture. So that 
person, when they are put into the E-Verify system, if they are hired 
by an ag employer, those have to jibe. If that person tries to go to 
construction, then his number won't work in a construction entity.
  If an employer tries to hire somebody illegally who is permitted to 
work in agriculture and they want to hire them in construction, then 
they are subject to a $2,500 fine per person per incident.
  This is something that we hear over and over again from our producers 
and our contractors in the hospitality industry. They need a guest 
worker program, and our goal for this was to create a reliable, a 
predictable, and a certain workforce for the labor of this country.
  The second part of the 5-year program is this: For the people who are 
in the country illegally, they can apply to this program. What we have 
done is we have moved ag labor from the Department of Labor to the 
USDA.
  So for that group of people who are in this country illegally, they 
can apply to this program. The program will be run by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, and they will run a program that says: For 
this time period, if you are here illegally and you want to apply to 
this program, then you can apply with the understanding that we are not 
looking to deport you. We are looking to get you to a legal status in 
this country for 5 years at a time.
  While that person is applying, he is what we call the applicant. 
During that process, they are protected from being deported. Background 
checks will be run.
  We realize that some people are going to have fender benders. They 
may not have shown up for a court date or didn't return a library book. 
We understand that, and they will be given due time to get right with 
the law and clear up their past.
  When they get accepted into the program, they become a participant. 
During that time period as a participant, they are here for 5 years at 
a time and can renew 4\1/2\ years into it. They get the GWIC card, and 
they get the 15-digit identification number that dedicates them to work 
in the ag center. They are not dedicated to a certain employer, and 
they can renew 4\1/2\ years into it.
  If they came in illegally with a family, their family is also 
protected during that period of time when a background check is being 
done. Once that

[[Page H7826]]

is cleared up, that family is protected for up to 5 years at a time. 
Again, when they renew, that family is protected.
  It is not a pathway to citizenship. If somebody wants to become a 
citizen, then they apply for citizenship just like anybody else who 
wants to become a citizen of our great Nation.
  In this program, again, what we are looking for is to create a 
reliable and predictable workforce for our agriculture sector, and it 
gives the flexibility of the individual to move around the country to 
fulfill the needs that migrant worker has.
  We did a roundtable throughout the State of Florida over the August 
recess. We stopped at 10 different areas in my State. Florida is a 
large agriculture State. People think of it as beaches and palm trees, 
but we are also the number one producer of sweet corn in the country, 
number one in watermelons, number one in citrus in the Nation, and we 
have over 300 specialty crops. So we are very heavily dependent on 
migrant labor.
  As we traveled around our State, we got a tremendous amount of 
feedback from all the different sectors. We sat down with the migrant 
help workforce.
  I am a veterinarian by trade, and I worked with horses and cattle. I 
have been around agriculture since I was 15. I have talked to the 
migrant. I have talked to the people. I found out by asking them: Did 
you come here legally or illegally?
  They would tell you because we had a great relationship. They would 
say: I came here illegally.
  You can ask them: Do you want to become a citizen?
  Some do, some don't. Most of them just want the opportunity to come 
here and work.
  When we were in south Florida going through talking to some of the 
producers, they were saying people from Honduras can come here and work 
a season, maybe 5 months. The amount of money they make in 5 months is 
equivalent to 5 years in that nation.
  I saw this as a way that we can fulfill the needs of our producers 
and fulfill the needs of food security for this Nation but also fulfill 
the needs of that worker who wants to come here for a better life, and 
they have the opportunity to become a citizen if they go through the 
normal channels.
  The other thing this does, and I didn't mention this, is there is a 
$2,500 fee for that 5-year permit, which breaks down to $500 a year.
  For the person who came in illegally, the first time they apply and 
get accepted into this program and become a participant, there will be 
the $2,500 fee for the permit, but there will also be a $2,500 fine 
because they have agreed that they have broken the law coming in. That 
puts that argument to rest of, well, they broke our law. These people 
realize that. They acknowledge it. They paid the fine, and we can move 
forward.
  I thought it was interesting, when we went down and did our tour 
around the State, that the producers said: You know, it comes down to 
this. This Nation will either import their food, or they are going to 
import their labor.

  This is a national security issue. I look at these workers--I have 
worked with so many of these people over the course of the years, over 
the last 30 years, and they are great people. My heart goes out to them 
because I know they want a better future. I know they want to live an 
American Dream--maybe not in this country, but maybe the Honduran 
dream. If a person can work 5 months here and have the equivalent of 5 
years' pay in their home country, it can change lives, and it will 
develop an economy down there.
  So what I ask our Members of Congress to do is get this information. 
They can go to our website, yoho.house.gov. They can go to the 
legislation tab and click on that. That will have a drop-down screen, 
and there will be the ag guest worker program. We have two short videos 
on that that explain this program. We have a 10-page white paper that 
explains this program. We have a bill that is already written--it is 
right at 110 pages--that we look to introduce.
  This is not a solution to immigration. It is a solution to the 
workforce challenges we have in this Nation in agriculture, 
hospitality, and construction.
  By doing this and coming to agreement on border security and 
enforcing the laws already on the books and by giving people a legal 
portal to come into this country legally--they are prescreened before 
they come in--and by allowing people who are in this country illegally 
to become legal, we have solved a big crisis that this body has been 
unable to fulfill, and we honor the American people. It causes more 
division in this Nation, more division in this House, and it just 
grinds the wheels of progress for this Nation to an end.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________