Washington, D.C. — An Ankeny woman who is president of the National Pork Producers Council is urging members of the U.S. Senate to reform the visa system so immigrants working as farm hands or in meat packing plants can stay permanently.
Jen Sorenson is also the communications for Iowa Select Farms, the largest pork producer in Iowa and the 8th largest in the United States.
The current H-2A visa program allows agribusinesses to fill temporary positions with foreign-born workers. Sorenson says that’s designed for seasonal agriculture, like vegetable and fruit farms, not for livestock operations which need a workforce all year long.
In March, the U.S. House passed a bill to make changes in the visa program for temporary farm workers. Sorenson says the bill is an excellent solution — if the bill’s cap on the number of visas in the bill is eliminated, so an unlimited number of visas for farm workers is available.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley invited Sorenson to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Grassley also invited Leon Sequeira, an assistant U.S. Labor Secretary in President Bush’s Administration and the former legal counsel to the Senate’s Republican leader.
The National Pork Producers Council president told senators the labor shortage in the pork industry is exacerbates by continued population decline in rural areas of the country, where most pork production and processing is located.
