Tuesday's immigration raid at Delta Downs–which resulted in the reported apprehension of 84 undocumented individuals–reminds industry stakeholders once again of a frustrating conundrum.
On the one hand, they must navigate an environment of ramped-up immigration enforcement, and the potential that what happened at Delta Downs could happen at any other racetrack around the country. On the other, they face a long-broken system that makes sourcing legal immigrant workers a bureaucratic nightmare.
“It's insanely difficult,” said trainer Doug O'Neill, about a visa system that's necessary to properly staff the racetrack backstretch.
“Though [many immigrant workers] may not have been fortunate to have a lot of schoolhouse education, they have a PhD in horse-care. It's virtually impossible to get someone out of high school or college [in the U.S.] and have them be able to learn, and have the work ethic, to do what is needed,” O'Neill said, adding how the raid at Delta Downs has unnerved horsemen and women around the country.
It was all the way back in 1986 that major immigration reform was passed on Capitol Hill. And while several legislative vehicles exist that could contain conditions favorable to workers in the horse racing industry, they face a long, embattled path to ever getting through a gridlocked Congress.
Last month, a bipartisan group of legislators reintroduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would, among other things, reform the current H-2A visa program and create a pathway towards legal status for agricultural workers.
As currently written, however, it contains no mention of equine workers.
The Affordable and Secure Food Act, first introduced in 2022, was reintroduced last year with an amendment establishing a program for equine workers, their spouses and children, to earn legal status, including a pathway to a green card after 10 years of work.
The plan is to reintroduce it this summer, said a legislative staffer for Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), a key figure behind the bill. “Our hope it to try to get some Republicans on board,” the staffer said.
Federally, the backstretch workforce falls under the umbrella of the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting them to H-2B visas only.
The H-2B visa program–which affords non-agriculture seasonal immigrant workers jobs in such industries as hospitality or with animals–has its limitations. It comes with a restrictive annual quota. The visa is typically only granted for nine months, but it can be extended for up to three years.
“When you do get lucky enough and you are able to get the one or two a year, they're here nine months, and they just start building great relationships with the rest of the crew and the horses, then they've got to go home for three months. And oftentimes, that three months turns into six months,” said O'Neill, who calls for backstretch workers to be categorized as agricultural workers.
In 2022, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill called the Paperwork Reduction for Farmers and H-2A Modernization Act that would have expanded the H-2A program–currently geared towards seasonal or temporary agricultural work–to additionally cover livestock, equine and other workers.
That bill is once again knocking around Washington with an eye to a possible reintroduction, said James O'Neill, Director of Legislative Affairs for the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), a nationwide bipartisan coalition of over 1,700 employers and CEOs.
“While we're certainly supportive of the expansion of the H-2A visa program, what that bill misses the mark on is the existing workforce that's already here without status,” said O'Neill.
“Counterintuitively,” O'Neill added, “some of the biggest developments, legislative and somewhat, have come from the administration.”
He pointed to guidance last week by the President and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that workplace enforcement should be paused at farms, hotels and restaurants, industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor. DHS officials, however, subsequently reversed that order.
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While this is indicative of a “split in the administration” on the topic of immigration, “more importantly, the President understands this issue, and is willing to engage in positive solutions,” said O'Neill.
“We're very encouraged by what the President said the other day, and it helps open up space and political room for legislators to take up the mantle and find solutions for the farm workforce,” he added.
While O'Neill sees the door open for legislative reform, Oscar Gonzales, Vice President of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) and a former Deputy Chief-of-Staff for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, believes that executive action is the likeliest and quickest way to immigration reform in Washington.
“That is what I believe is the best solution at this point in time,” Gonzales said.
“What that looks like is anybody's guess,” said Gonzales. “But what we want to be aware of are a couple things that would be absolute deal breakers. We have to have a pathway or a visa program that really fits our industry.”
One of those deal-breakers in any possible immigration reform, said Gonzales, would be a “touch-back” requirement–in other words, that a law-abiding, undocumented worker must return to their home country as part of the application process.
“We have to make sure, if they insist on them going to a foreign soil, that a worker has the ability to go to his or her consulate or something similar to get approved,” said Gonzales.
During his time in the agriculture department, Gonzales said he witnessed first-hand the obstacles that thwarted immigration reform, as well as the hurdles impeding horse racing's voice in those conversations.
“It's the federal agencies' difficulty in understanding horse racing because it is so different to any other industry,” said Gonzales.
There's the counterintuitive urban presence of many racetracks, along with the peripatetic nature of racing life–moving from track-to-track, state-to-state–that makes these conversations tricky. Another is the highly-regulated nature of the average racetrack.
“These are the things I would have to explain when I'm talking to the Department of Labor, or Commerce, or the State Department,” said Gonzales.
But the “profound cost” from labor disruptions to horsemen and women who are already straining under the increased financial weight of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) means the sport has a sound footing from which to argue its cause, he said.
“We're seeing costs go up. Labor's going to be tougher to come by. So, we could very well be seeing an acceleration of people's concerns of HISA on the financial front, especially if people's biggest expense is labor,” said Gonzales, who added that he planned to reach out to HISA to see if they could communicate these concerns with other federal agencies.
“There might be some elements in there that could help us make a case for some immigration relief,” he said.
In the meantime, concerned trainers should relay to their local congressional representatives their worries, said Gonzales. He pointed to a survey he conducted that identified 70 congressional members that represent all Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse and harness tracks throughout the country.
“Do we have sway in the state capital? I say we do. We just have to be self-aware that we do have that, and that we do have a story to tell,” said Gonzales. “Even if the [politicians] don't have racing in their district, they probably have sports betting, of which many of their constituents are betting on a sport with a large immigrant workforce.”
Gonzales grew up on the backstretch in Southern California and was present some forty years ago when immigration enforcement officers swept the Del Mar backstretch, leading to hundreds of workers fleeing the track and to the cancellation of racing.
“I was on the backstretch at Del Mar during those raids. I have lived this and I have experienced this,” said Gonzales. “And I'll tell you, we have to start gearing up for some battles ahead if we're to save this great sport.”
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