Visa change hurts farmworkers, groups say
Debate swirls regarding jobs and immigrants
By Deborah Bulkeley and Jens Dana,
Deseret Morning News
Farmworker advocacy coalitions are calling on the Department of Labor to
retract changes to a seasonal worker visa that they say put American
workers at a disadvantage.
The H-2A seasonal agricultural guest worker program allows agricultural
employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal jobs if they can show
there is a shortage of labor and that the working conditions and wages
won't be negatively impacted.
The Department of Labor isn't saying publicly whether it is in the
process or if it has already revised its process for issuing the visas,
which has long been seen as cumbersome by agribusinesses.
Department spokesman Terry Shawn said only, "we can't comment on any
proposed rule changes," and referred the Deseret Morning News to an
August statement by the Bush administration on immigration policy. A
White House fact sheet from that date says because of "severe labor
shortages," the president has directed the Labor Department to review H-2A
policy and "institute changes that will provide farmers with an orderly
and timely flow of legal workers, while protecting the rights of
laborers."
Clarifications for procedures related to the visas are outlined in an
advisory issued Nov. 14 by Assistant Secretary Emily Stover DeRocco and
released publicly this month by Farmworker Justice, one of 24 advocacy
groups that signed a letter calling the policy change an illegal one
that took place without allowing for public comment.
"The policies in this memo will enable hundreds of agricultural
employers to avoid the need to compete for U.S. workers through improved
wages and working conditions," the letter says.
In Utah, 100,000 jobs are tied directly to agriculture, and the industry
contributes $4 billion to $5 billion to the economy, said Randy Parker,
chief executive officer of the Utah Farm Bureau.
Parker hadn't seen the memo but did say the seasonal guest-worker
program needs revamping so that employers can get the help they need.
When local labor isn't available, a delay of even a few weeks can be
disastrous for businesses such as orchards with narrow harvesting
windows, he said.
"We have labor needs that are going unmet," he said. "We have farmers
that are in need of workers on Utah dairies right now; we can't fill
jobs in the food processing industry. ... Milking cows for four, five or
six hours at 3 o'clock in the morning and then again at 6 at night is
not a glamorous job."
Third-generation orchard owner William McMullin agreed, saying the
government needs to find a way to shorten the application process for
seasonal worker visas so farmers have enough laborers to harvest crops.
The McMullins, who have owned their orchard at 5625 West and 12000 South
in Payson since the 1920s, have difficulty finding enough local help so
they bring in H-2A workers — even though the family has to apply for the
visas three months in advance and pay for seasonal workers' travel
expenses.
"We just can't survive without a good source of labor," he said. "If we
can't harvest, we don't really have a lot of choice on how we're going
to make money."
Last year, McMullin contracted five people to come to work for him, but
their visas were delayed two weeks, and the McMullins lost 50,000 pounds
of sweet cherries due to the shortage of manpower.
"That didn't help us out," he said.
This year, McMullin estimates they will apply for as many as 40 seasonal
worker visas. He said finding easier, more efficient ways to process
seasonal worker visas would be a big boost to the agricultural industry
so farmers "can get them up here and get them working."
"We have to jump through so many hoops," he said. "It's quite the
process."
However, Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice, says
the policy change does nothing to address his organization's estimates
that as many as 70 percent of the nation's estimated 2.5 million
farmworkers are undocumented. There were 46,432 H-2A guest workers in
2006, according to Department of Homeland Security records, which
Goldstein says leaves roughly 750,000 U.S. citizens and legal permanent
residents in the agriculture industry.
"It will allow employers to falsely claim they can't find any U.S.
workers, so they can hire foreign guest workers who they can pay less,"
Goldstein said. "It's the worst of both worlds. This is not sensible
immigration policy."
But McMullin sees the situation as a win-win. He gets his crops
harvested before they go down, and the seasonal workers are able to come
to the United States legally to make a decent living — earning an
average $8 per hour on the McMullin farm, he said.
"It's good for them, it's good for me," he said.
McMullin also said workers who come as seasonal work won't try to stay
illegally when their visas expire.
"They're going to go back," he said. "They want to go back to their
families."
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