(NAFB) – Bipartisan support for farm labor immigration reform ran headlong into GOP complaints at a Senate Judiciary hearing, that the southern border must be secured first.

There was no mistaking the bipartisan desire to fix the decades-old problem that previous legislative efforts have failed to fix—a lack of legal, year-round migrant farm labor under the H-2A program.

But fireworks flew at the Senate Judiciary Committee when former Chairman and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham had this angry exchange with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

And the fight got nastier when Texas Republican Ted Cruz piled on.

But usually mild-mannered Judiciary Chairman and Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin was unswayed.

Which is where the Senate could be headed after the House in March passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that’s gotten mixed reviews from the American Farm Bureau and others.

Democrats are hoping to include broad immigration reform in President Biden’s social infrastructure bill later this year, but Republicans argue it’s not budget-related and want the Senate Parliamentarian to keep it out—nixing another possible avenue for farm labor reform.