Thus, the new AWPA reforms would render the minimal protections, which are currently weak and rarely enforced, null and void. Repealing the protections will prove disastrous for migrant workers. The following case study is taken from interviews completed in July 1997 in Southeastern Colorado. It exemplifies some of the devastating results of the 1996 Immigration Reform Act and the Welfare Reform Legislation, and the ineffectiveness of current AWPA standards. The names have been changed to protect the workers' identities.
Different states have different harvest seasons.
Thus, most migrant farm workers travel from one region to another, depending on the harvest period. This program allowed a certain number of agricultural workers to adjust to LPR status. Typically, their spouses either have not filed for a 'green card', or LPR status, or are waiting for a priority date. The priority date is the date assigned an immediate relative immigrant once the relative's application for immigration has been approved. While many migrant workers' children are U.S. citizens, there are still a large number of children who wait for priority dates to become current or who have failed to file altogether.