GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

March 17, 2007

Farmers ask for flexible guest worker program

By KATHERINE HUTT SCOTT
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Croswell farmer John O'Hair wants to grow more strawberries and other profitable fruit and vegetable crops, but he's stymied by a shortage of workers to help with the harvest.

During a visit to Washington this week with other representatives of the Michigan Farm Bureau, O'Hair argued the country's foreign-worker program should be more flexible. But he said the argument didn't seem to have much impact.

In a state like Michigan where we have high unemployment, it's hard (for lawmakers) to connect with the need for labor," said O'Hair, 40.

His congresswoman, Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, didn't respond to a request for comment.

Two years ago, the House - with Miller's support - adopted a crackdown on illegal immigration that would make illegal presence in this country a criminal offense. The measure, which never became law, would have forced many migrant farm workers to leave the county.

The federal program that authorizes farmers to recruit and temporarily employ foreign workers requires farmers to request the workers at least 60 days in advance.

That's a problem for fruit and vegetable growers because changes in weather can make the crops ripen sooner or later than expected. Once they ripen, the crops must be harvested within three or four weeks.

The farm bureau, which led a delegation of more than 100 producers to Washington for a three-day visit that ended Friday, lobbied Michigan lawmakers to make the foreign worker program more responsive to the needs of fruit and vegetable growers, said Sarah Black, the bureau's public policy director.

"We need to get rid of the some of the bureaucracy in this system or it's not going to work," Black said.

The program doesn't take jobs away from U.S. workers because it requires farmers to advertise the jobs locally first. But many U.S. workers don't want farm jobs because they involve long hours and hard work, Black said.

Lawmakers are close to restarting the debate on immigration reform that lasted more than a year in the last Congress without producing a resolution.

In the Senate, Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy and Arizona Republican John McCain are working out details of a new bill that would let millions of undocumented immigrants get legal status and allow hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to come here legally in the future.

House lawmakers are working on a companion bill. President Bush supports the reform proposal.