AB 20: Undocumented workers: California Agricultural Act.

Existing provisions of federal law regulate immigration. Under federal law, state law regulating immigration is preempted.

This bill would require the Employment Development Department Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture to convene a working group to consult with the United States Department of Homeland Security and the United States Department of Justice in order to determine the legal roles and responsibilities of federal and state agencies in implementing a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural employees with a permit to work and live in California. The bill would require the Governor, using the report, to either make a formal request to the federal government to implement a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural employees with a permit to work and live in California, or issue an explanation as to why a formal request was not made and make recommendations to the Legislature for how a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural employees with a permit to work and live in California should be structured.

The bill would also describe a framework for a program to provide undocumented persons who are agricultural employees a permit to work and live in California if such a program were to be authorized by federal law.