Feds Relax Guest Worker Rules for Farmers
New guest-worker rules intended to ease farm industry worries
RELAXED REQUIREMENTS WILL BE CONTROVERSIAL
Nicole Gaouette
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans today to announce the most significant overhaul in two decades to the United States’ agricultural guest-worker program in a bid to increase the number of legal foreign laborers available for the fruit and vegetable harvest.
The revised regulations, months in the works, are aimed at ending the critical farmworker shortage that came as the U.S. government cracked down on illegal border crossings by making it easier for growers to bring foreign workers to the United States.
After Congress failed to reform the nation’s immigration laws in the summer, the White House announced a 26-step plan to tackle immigration issues through administrative fixes. Altering the legal farmworker program would mark the most significant achievement to date.
“There is huge potential here to replace the massive illegal workforce with a legal one,â€