Promoting the bill is an array of agribusiness interests, especially those in the labor-intensive fruit, vegetable and horticulture sectors. Opposing it is a broad range of farmworker, labor, civil rights, religious, legal-advocate and other organizations. Also opposing the bill is the Clinton administration. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman has said that she would recommend that the President veto the bill if it is passed. Farmworker advocates say that the new legislation offers even less protection from employer abuses than was provided under the bracero program.
Promoters claim that the new legislation addresses a shortage of agricultural workers.
According to opponents of the bill, growers see the legislation as a way to break organizing efforts by farmworker unions. Visas under the guestworker program would be linked to employment by specific growers. Workers would be forbidden to join unions. If they did organize and were fired, they would immediately be deported. Instead of filling a fictitious labor shortage, what the growers really have in mind is creating a pool of workers without rights.