Lawmakers Consider IDs For Farm Workers

AP File Photo/Toby Talbot

Migrant farmworker Danilo Lopez, right, who was arrested by state police last September on Interstate 89, waits to testify before the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in Montpelier.

(Host) A Vermont Senate committee is considering a bill that would create a farm guest worker program for the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 immigrant workers on Vermont dairy farms.

The bill would create a state identification for the workers and a registry that would allow them to be eligible for state services.

Senator Jeanette White, a democrat from Windham County, is the bill's sponsor. She told the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday that there's already a federal guest worker program for seasonal farm workers and for ski resort employees.

She says immigration is a federal government issue, but Vermont has always been willing to go against the federal government when "it's the right thing to do."