US work visa holders needed for farming industry

United States, 12th July: US work visa holders are necessary for the US farming industry, claims a campaign by the US United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

The campaign brought forth a big fact before the Americans that the immigrant workers holding US work visas are not, in any way, 
stealing jobs of the natives. 

Hence, the blame on immigrant workers is wholly baseless and without any truth, added the campaign. On the contrary, it is the 
Americans who are to be blamed for not taking up low paid and labor-intensive farming jobs in the US, the US farming industry 
maintained. 

The campaign launched by the US farm workers titled “Take Our Jobs” aims to make it clear that the immigrant farm workers in the US take those jobs in the US which majority of Americans are unwilling to perform. 

And if the US wants to replace immigrant farm workers in the US, then it would require at least half a million American citizens as 
well as legal US residents to take up farm jobs in the US, stated Arturo Rodriguez, president of the US UFW. 

Nearly 85 percent of US farm workers are those on US work visas. And majority ( nearly 75 percent) of them are illegal or undocumented workers without having a US work visa to live and work in the US, admitted the UFW. 

The website www.takeourjobs.org has invited US citizens to take up jobs of farm workers in the US. 

Since 24th June 2010, around 4,000 people have shown response to the website out of which only a handful are serious responses 
while remaining are just hate mails directed towards those having US work visas employed as farm workers in the US.

The fact is that despite of poor job scenario in the US with jobless rate hovering around 9.5 percent and a total of 14.6 million being 
without any jobs in the US, the number of those willing to work as farm workers in the US is very less. 

The campaign by US UFW is meant to draw attention towards an imminent need for a reform in the US immigration rules which need to be amended to provide a route for US legal citizenship to immigrants in the US after completion of a specified time period as farm 
workers in the country.