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Overdue Reform
Proposed Changes to H2A Program Could Help Growers By Greg Brown
Farmers tired of competing for illegal workers and H2A paperwork delays could see some reform of immigration and labor laws later this year.
Sources on the West Coast say the percentage of illegal agricultural workers there may be as high as 75%. The East Coast says their rate of illegal ag employees could hit 65%. Even the federal government acknowledges a rate of 52% of ag workers being illegally employed in the United States, based on government surveys of those workers. Because of the high rate of illegal workers employed, the cost of legal workers artificially high and the human cost of workers endangering themselves to get across the border, the groups say it is time for change. If their measure gains momentum, it could go for a vote as early as the end of the year. “This effort started eight years ago, and we are still very involved in trying to get it through Congress,” said Sharon Hughes, executive vice president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE). “Over the last two years we have been in negotiations with representatives on the Republican and Democrat side of the issue and we’ve come up with a comprehensive package of adjustments to the H2A worker program.” Groups like the NCAE have been doing their work behind the scenes. In April, more than 80 organizations representing many facets of labor-intensive agriculture sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to urge his support for comprehensive immigration reform. Their recent unofficial proposal would make it easier for farmers to get the help they need and allow current illegal workers to adjust their status over a period of time, said Hughes. The program would also correct the adverse wage rates that are determined by surveys of all agricultural employees in a region under H2A. Right now, in the Northeast that wage is determined by a survey of wages of all ag employees, according to John Young, executive director of the New England Apple Council. That survey averages the pay rate of hand pickers, livestock workers, truck drivers and equipment operators. It is not an apples to apples figure, farmers say. The 200 growers in various commodities that the apple council represents face a wave of bureaucratic and redundant paperwork to certify their workers as legal employees. Young’s organization helps growers to use the current H2A program, so he knows first-hand the problems with H2A. The labor situation has gotten so bad in New England that producers have shut down and sold farms, said Young. “The legislation that NCAE is championing would do two things for growers,” he said. “It would streamline the paper work that a grower has to do. It will also change the wage rates that are basically driving growers out of the business, growing by as much as five to seven percent per year. “The wage rates are out of tune with the reality of wages for these jobs in location here in the Northeast,” said Young. “We are not talking about minimum wage jobs. Our H2A wage rate is currently $8.53 cents per hour.” Out West the situation is worse, according to grower groups. “Employers work hard to meet their legal obligations in the hiring process; the high percentage of improperly documented workers in the workforce puts farmers, ranchers and U.S. agricultural productivity and self-sufficiency at risk,” said Bob Vice, a former president of the California Farm Bureau. Vice is also immediate past president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers and co-chair of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (ACIR). Vice said he would put illegal ag workers in Western agriculture at least at 75% of all Western agricultural employees. The volume of workers needed in California is too high, he said, and the 50-year-old H2A agricultural guest worker program is inefficient and expensive. These workers are, in many cases, doing jobs that many Americans don’t want to do, he said. The tentative plan would also grant an opportunity for some H2A workers to get an adjustment of status, which includes a multi-year visa. The measure would legalize some workers that were here illegally, as well. Young said, “In our case, it will actually give a reward to workers that have been playing by the rules,” he said. Such workers could fill seasonal agricultural jobs, subject to security checks and tracking of their entry and exit. Of the workers who would be affected by the measure, NCAE reports that some will elect to stay and work illegally, some will return to Mexico and return as a legal, documented worker. A third group, numbering 500,000-600,000, would be eligible for a domestic transition program. NCAE sees the action coming before the end of the year. “While it has not yet been introduced, we are working with Senate and House leadership,” said Hughes. “We are to actually have a hearing worked out on the Senate side and have it build support in the House among the Republicans. “We are trying to get all of the legwork done first, since it has to be enacted this year. Next year is an election year, and little happens in election years.” |
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