ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (Denver)

September 16, 2007

Canada offers migrant tips

Colorado looks north of the border for ways to draw workers

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp hears routinely about the hard time farmers have getting migrant workers to pick crops before they rot on the vine.

Take Sakata Farms in Brighton: Months before the harvest in June and July, the owners requested visas for 80 migrant workers from Mexico.

Somewhere in Chicago or Atlanta, where the federal government processes work visas, Sakata Farms' request for migrant workers slipped into a black hole.

"There is a bottleneck at the federal level in approving work visas, causing real problems for farmers," Stulp said. "We need to work out a guest worker program where people can come here legally and then also return home."

That's why Stulp will lead a delegation of state officials to Ottawa, where, starting Sunday, they will spend three days reviewing Canada's long-standing guest worker program and relationship with Mexico.

The delegation is made up of two officials from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and two officials from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, and Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, are floating a controversial proposal that calls for the state to open an employment office in Mexico to recruit seasonal workers.

Farmers are struggling to find help as migrants scared by crackdowns on illegal immigration bypass the state, they say.

The two lawmakers from farm districts are not talking about starting a new visa program.

They hope, as Stulp does, the state can establish a program similar to the one in Canada to help Colorado farmers draw migrant workers through an existing federal visa program called "H-2A."

That program has no cap on visa numbers, as some other visas do.

"I can only imagine how the farmers feel when their livelihood is being threatened, and the federal visa program is flawed," Looper said.

"What do you do? Give up? Farmers can't afford to give up on their livelihood. We, as elected officials, can't afford to give up on them."

Agriculture is the third-largest industry in Colorado, pumping $16 billion annually into the state's economy, state officials said.

Canada's guest worker program has existed for 34 years, drawing 15,000 migrant workers per year to Canada, immigration attorney Eleanor Somerleigh said.

The Canadian Embassy in Mexico works closely with Mexican agencies, which select the seasonal workers, perform medical examinations, assist workers with work visas and provide them with proper immigration documents.

Canada issues work permits for as little as six weeks and up to eight months. About 70 percent of migrant workers, mostly from Mexico, have worked in Canada for the same employer.

The seasonal workers essentially have the same rights as Canadian workers to worker's compensation and health care.

"It has been a very successful program. Very few workers breach the terms of the work permit because they are assured entry into Canada the following year and thereafter," Somerleigh said. "Some have worked in Canada for 20 years in row."

Canada's guest worker program isn't the magic bullet to solving labor shortages.

Despite luring thousands of workers each year, provinces such as Alberta still grapple with labor shortfalls.

The program isn't cheap.

Colorado farmers, as is done in Canada, would have to provide housing and transportation.

Labor laws require farmers to pay a livable wage.

Colorado's ambitious plan must overcome legal roadblocks and political hurdles before it becomes reality.

The Mexican outpost could become snarled in issues surrounding U.S. immigration law and bogged down in the bureaucratic morass it seeks to undo.

"You can have a million or 2 million workers lined up to work in the U.S. But if you don't have a way for them to get in, it's meaningless and does nothing to alleviate the shortages in Colorado," said Donna Lipinski, an immigration attorney for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington.