Farm-worker gap spurs bid to ease entry rules
Oct 12, 2007—A report in the Los Angeles Times indicates that as a nationwide farm-worker shortage is threatening to leave fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict ways foreign laborers legally may be brought into the country.
The urgent effort, under way at the U.S. departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of undocumented workers crossing the border.
The push to rewrite the regulations is also the administration's attempt to step into the breach left when Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul in June. Almost three-quarters of workers on U.S. farms are thought to be illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, immigrant advocates fear the changes will come at the expense of worker protections because the administration has received and reportedly is acting on extensive input from farm lobbyists.
Farmers in areas such as California's San Joaquin Valley, which is experiencing a 20 percent labor shortfall, worry the administration's changes will not happen soon enough for the 2008 growing season.
"It's like a ticking time bomb that's going to go off," said Luawanna Hallstrom, chief operating officer of Harry Singh & Sons, a third-generation family farm in Oceanside, Calif., that grows tomatoes.
Officials at the three federal agencies are checking the regulations to see whether they can adjust the farm worker program, a highly bureaucratic system so unwieldy that less than 2 percent of American farms use it to bring in foreign workers. They are considering a series of changes, including lengthening the time workers may stay, expanding the types of work they can do, simplifying the way applications are processed and even redefining terms such as "temporary."
The agencies also are working on possible changes to a separate visa H2B program that brings in seasonal workers for resorts, clam-shucking operations and horse stables, among other businesses.
The number of H2A workers in Kentucky has increased considerably during the last year, according to Jeff Gatewood of the Office of Employment and Training in the Kentucky Education Cabinet.
In fiscal year 2006, 576 farmers across the state employed 3,417 foreign farm workers, many in tobacco fields. This year, 763 farmers employed 4,833 foreign farm workers - a 41 percent increase in the number of foreign agricultural workers in the state legally.
There are fewer H2B workers, but more workers per case or request, said George Scott, also of the OET. In fiscal year 2006, Kentucky had 117 requests and employed 2,367 workers. In fiscal year 2007, the numbers were similar: 121 requests and 2,904 workers. Many of these people work in landscaping, nurseries and grounds work as well as horse stables.
Oct 12, 2007—A report in the Los Angeles Times indicates that as a nationwide farm-worker shortage is threatening to leave fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict ways foreign laborers legally may be brought into the country.
The urgent effort, under way at the U.S. departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of undocumented workers crossing the border.
The push to rewrite the regulations is also the administration's attempt to step into the breach left when Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul in June. Almost three-quarters of workers on U.S. farms are thought to be illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, immigrant advocates fear the changes will come at the expense of worker protections because the administration has received and reportedly is acting on extensive input from farm lobbyists.
Farmers in areas such as California's San Joaquin Valley, which is experiencing a 20 percent labor shortfall, worry the administration's changes will not happen soon enough for the 2008 growing season.
"It's like a ticking time bomb that's going to go off," said Luawanna Hallstrom, chief operating officer of Harry Singh & Sons, a third-generation family farm in Oceanside, Calif., that grows tomatoes.
Officials at the three federal agencies are checking the regulations to see whether they can adjust the farm worker program, a highly bureaucratic system so unwieldy that less than 2 percent of American farms use it to bring in foreign workers. They are considering a series of changes, including lengthening the time workers may stay, expanding the types of work they can do, simplifying the way applications are processed and even redefining terms such as "temporary."
The agencies also are working on possible changes to a separate visa H2B program that brings in seasonal workers for resorts, clam-shucking operations and horse stables, among other businesses.
The number of H2A workers in Kentucky has increased considerably during the last year, according to Jeff Gatewood of the Office of Employment and Training in the Kentucky Education Cabinet.
In fiscal year 2006, 576 farmers across the state employed 3,417 foreign farm workers, many in tobacco fields. This year, 763 farmers employed 4,833 foreign farm workers - a 41 percent increase in the number of foreign agricultural workers in the state legally.
There are fewer H2B workers, but more workers per case or request, said George Scott, also of the OET. In fiscal year 2006, Kentucky had 117 requests and employed 2,367 workers. In fiscal year 2007, the numbers were similar: 121 requests and 2,904 workers. Many of these people work in landscaping, nurseries and grounds work as well as horse stables.
