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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last month that seeks to combat illegal immigration and crack down on the hiring of illegal aliens.

Most of the bill, which passed 239-182, focused on tightening border controls, including building a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, and putting more anti-terrorism measures in place. The Senate is expected to debate the issue in February.

While Farm Bureau supports the bill's enforcement efforts on increased homeland security, it has concerns about a requirement that all U.S. employers submit workers' Social Security numbers to a national database so the legal status of workers can be verified, said John Wargowsky, director of labor services. Employers would then be notified if the worker was legal. The House immigration bill also calls for raising fines against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.

"We need to ensure the electronic verification system is reliable, minimally burdensome and provides adequate lead time for smaller, family farmers," Wargowsky said.

He noted that a pilot verification program falsely rejected about one out of every two legal U.S. residents.

"These are logistical problems if employers must electronically verify all their workers before recruitment or referral begins," he said.

One area that Farm Bureau hopes the Senate will address is President Bush's proposed temporary worker program, which would allow current illegal immigrants to get three-year work visas. After that, they could apply for a three-year extension but would have to return to their home countries after the six years. Federal officials estimate that there are about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Agriculture often relies on immigrants for the temporary jobs that can't be filled by Americans, and immigration reform needs to address this need, Wargowsky said.

"We urge Congress to work with the White House to integrate an affordable and workable temporary worker program that will allow agriculture to employ a legal and reliable work force," he said. "The reality is that there are not enough American workers to fill many of the jobs on the farm."

American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that at least $6 billion of U.S. fruit and vegetable production would be at risk of being lost to foreign competition without a workable temporary worker program.

"We're in favor of border security, but at the same time there has to be a recognition that national security touches on national food security, and we don't want to be trading border security for food security if our products are shifted overseas because we are unable to find the labor that we need in order to harvest America's food supply," said Austin Perez, AFBF's labor specialist.