CALIFORNIA, USA — Most farmworkers in California are undocumented, but that could change if lawmakers pass a bill creating a path to citizenship for them.
It’s not the first attempt at creating a pathway to legal citizenship for farmworkers. The people behind California Senate Bill 831 say the pandemic taught everyone farmworkers are essential workers.
Piedad Pimental starts her day at 4 a.m. and works until the sun sets.
“We do various tasks here in the fields, from picking the almonds to picking walnuts, arrange hoses, clean the tomatoes,” said Pimental.
It’s a job she couldn’t do from home when the world shut down in 2020.
“Well, the pandemic did affect us, but we did our best to make sure the work still got done, to make sure people still got their food, their vegetables, to make sure harvest didn’t stop,” said Pimental.
She is a legal citizen who knows many who aren’t.
“They have a different kind of treatment because they are undocumented. I hope there’s more equality for everyone because all of us work really had to provide for our families,” she said.
University of California, Merced says about 75% of California farmworkers are undocumented. Senator Ana Caballero introduced a bill which would authorize the governor to work with the federal government to allow agricultural workers who have lived in the state for five years to qualify for citizenship.
It would be a partnership with the federal government to create the program based on federal guidelines. Federal guidelines mean there will still be a criminal background check, national security check and fees.
“It would be of great help. They would have more benefits with health insurance, with medical, because there’s a lot of families with kids. They need health insurance,” said Pimental.
The bill’s first committee hearing will happen in a few weeks. It’s when we’ll learn how much the proposal could cost the state.
We reached out to the Republican caucus to see how they feel about the bill. They have not responded yet.
