While I'm sympathetic to Californians wanting to ensure their stoop labor supply, why should a guest worker program have the carrot of citizenship at the end.
Migrant agriculture workers are just that: migrants who follow the crops from state to state, but many return to Mexico during the fallow season while others remain in the US and seek other employment or welfare. How would you ever keep track of who is staying permanently at agricultural jobs?.
Under Feinstein's idea, which hasn't yet been finalized, longtime undocumented agricultural workers would get a "blue card," allowing them to continue to work in agriculture. After a period of years of continued agricultural work, they would be entitled to trade in their blue card for a "green card."
There is nothing new here, the SAW program in the mid 80s did the same thing. The result was as soon as the illegal aliens in agg received their valid immigration cards they left agg for better jobs in construction or the service industry. (I am sure all of us would do the same)
This created a labor shortage in agg into which an entire new generation of illegal aliens rushed into fill the vacuum. Proposals like this always result in more illegal immigration. IMHO the only program that will help is a non-immigrant guest worker program with no link to formal immigration. Guest workers could apply for permanent residence status while working as a guest worker, but they would have to wait in line like everyone else.
Most California citizens DON'T WANT THIS, it's the politicians who push it.
For many years it appeared the wine industry was on its way to total mechanization of the harvest. Then the INS stopped it's raids (which used to drive the wineries and grape growers nuts). Now picking machines are few and far between. The excuse for their non use is that they BRUISE the grapes and the invading foreign national pickers are so much kinder to the vines!!