The board that oversees
health care in Vermont is looking at health issues affecting the state’s undocumented
farm workers. The Legislature asked the
Green Mountain Care Board to estimate how much it would cost to include the
undocumented migrant workers in a universal coverage plan.
The
U.S. Border Patrol says a Honduran man is going to prison for 10 months after
being convicted on charges he brought a prostitute to workers on dairy farms in
Vermont and New York.
The
federal government has introduced its Secure Communities immigration
enforcement policy in Vermont, despite the state’s so-called bias-free policing
policy.
This week Vermont became the latest state to have the federal government implement the Secure Communities program, raising questions and concerns about how it would affect law enforcement and immigrants in the state.
The
Vermont Senate has given its unanimous approval to legislation that creates a
summer study to explore the pros and cons of allowing migrant workers to
apply for a Vermont driver’s license.
Vermont’s dairy industry relies heavily on migrant
farmworkers, most of them from Mexico. Now, the state legislature is looking into whether
these workers should be allowed to obtain driver’s licenses, regardless of
their immigration status.
Governor
Peter Shumlin supports a Senate bill that would allow undocumented migrant
farm workers to get a Vermont driver’s license. The
governor says the workers are essential for the state’s dairy industry and that
they should be free to move around the community.