Thread: DHS revamping agriculture guest worker programs

DHS revamping agriculture guest worker programs (crops rotting in fields, redefining "temporary")

Nicole Gaouette of the Los Angeles Times offers "U.S. lets in more immigrants for farms" (link):

With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country.

...On all sides of the farm industry, the administration's behind-the-scenes initiative to revamp H-2A farmworker visas is fraught with anxiety. Advocates for immigrants fear the changes will come at the expense of worker protections because the administration has received and is reportedly acting on extensive input from farm lobbyists. And farmers in areas such as the San Joaquin Valley, which is experiencing a 20% 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 that grows tomatoes. "I'm looking at my fellow farmers and saying, 'Oh my God, what's going on?'"

"Family farm" or politically-connected major albeit non-corporate grower? Perhaps if the LAT wanted to do some real reporting they might consider looking into her links.

Officials at the three federal agencies are scrutinizing the regulations to see whether they can adjust the farmworker program, an unwieldy system used by less than 2% of American farms to bring in foreign workers. They are considering a series of changes, including lengthening the time workers can stay, expanding the types of work they can do, simplifying how their applications are processed, and redefining terms such as "temporary."

Orwell would be proud.

The agencies are also working on possible changes to a separate visa program, H-2B, which brings in seasonal workers for resorts, clam-shucking operations and horse stables, among other businesses.

All of which are vital to our economy.

...The changes to the H-2A visa program comprise one of more than two dozen initiatives the administration announced in August. Most of the initiatives dealt with increased enforcement, the most prominent being a measure that would force employers to either fire workers for whom they've received "no match" notification (indicating their W-2 data don't match Social Security Administration records) or face punitive action from the Department of Homeland Security. When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the enforcement push, he also acknowledged the problems that agriculture reported.

...Industry lobbyists have sent the Bush administration a set of detailed suggestions for overhauling the H-2A program through administrative changes, which could take weeks to put in place, and through changes in the regulations, a process that takes months.

Some of the suggestions under consideration include changing the procedures farmers must use to try to hire U.S. citizens first. Currently farmers have to advertise the jobs, then submit applications to Labor and Homeland Security to bring in foreign workers. Growers would prefer to move to a system in which they pledged that they had done all they could to recruit U.S. workers, but no longer had to submit an application to Labor.

Other changes under consideration would simplify the detailed H-2A housing requirements, extend the definition of "temporary" beyond 10 months, and expand the definition of "agricultural" workers to include such industries as meatpacking and poultry processing .
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007117.html[color=#444444][/color

Growers would prefer to move to a system in which they pledged that they had done all they could to recruit U.S. workers, but no longer had to submit an application to Labor.

Growers would PREFER........ How about what the rest us Americans, doesn't what we PREFER count for anything?

Why has Canada's "Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)" evidentally worked to the satisfaction of both growers and workers for several decades while our H-2A program, which is very similiar, is declared "inoperable"? Both program employ primarily Mexican workers - Canada legally under contract with the Mexican government, which itself selects the workers to be employed in Canada - and the United States primarily illegally through the unwillingness of our agricultural sector to obey our labor and immigration laws, and of our government to enforce them?

Please go to www.hrsdc.gc.ca (Human Resources and Social Development Canada), where their Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program is outlined. When contacting your Congressional representatives about the above proposed H-2A expansion and the pending "AG-JOBS amnesty", please consider asking why Canada has a legal temporary foreign agricultural worker program which operates successfully, primarily in cooperation with the government of Mexico, while the United States has been unable to arrive at similiar arrangements? Please also note that the rights of these workers are fully protected under the "SAWP" program while they are employed in Canada.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Texas2step

Why has Canada's "Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)" evidentally worked to the satisfaction of both growers and workers for several decades while our H-2A program, which is very similiar, is declared "inoperable"? Both program employ primarily Mexican workers - Canada legally under contract with the Mexican government, which itself selects the workers to be employed in Canada - and the United States primarily illegally through the unwillingness of our agricultural sector to obey our labor and immigration laws, and of our government to enforce them?

Please go to www.hrsdc.gc.ca (Human Resources and Social Development Canada), where their Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program is outlined. When contacting your Congressional representatives about the above proposed H-2A expansion and the pending "AG-JOBS amnesty", please consider asking why Canada has a legal temporary foreign agricultural worker program which operates successfully, primarily in cooperation with the government of Mexico, while the United States has been unable to arrive at similiar arrangements? Please also note that the rights of these workers are fully protected under the "SAWP" program while they are employed in Canada.

Thanks.

Excellent point, Texas2step. This is really good information to use. I did not know about this but you can bet I will use it during the upcoming AG JOBS fight.

Originally Posted by MW

Growers would prefer to move to a system in which they pledged that they had done all they could to recruit U.S. workers, but no longer had to submit an application to Labor.

Growers would PREFER........ How about what the rest us Americans, doesn't what we PREFER count for anything?

Yes!
Allowing adherence to the law to be become 'optional' only makes the entire set of problems much worse... Just remember the famous talk Larry Lebowitz gave on how to maintain the appearance of adhering to the law, while skirting the intentions of it quite purposefully - my words, not his (of Cohen & Grigsby)
Self-reporting has proved itself to be the open invitation for deceit, cheating and lawlessness.

To the congress and farmers, How many ag workers have you brought in the last 10 years and where the hell are they?

They are in other fields of work you idiots, you must be made to stop the maddness, if you are not going to keep them in that industry, you deserve what you get.

Can the president change the number of H2B program with out congress okaying it? Does anyone know?

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

Can the president change the number of H2B program with out congress okaying it? Does anyone know?

a very good question. I would hope not but he's shown disdain for anything that gets in the way of his agenda. I will contact my Congressmen.

Originally Posted by zeezil

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

Can the president change the number of H2B program with out congress okaying it? Does anyone know?

a very good question. I would hope not but he's shown disdain for anything that gets in the way of his agenda. I will contact my Congressmen.

Great Zeezil, I had heard this on the news this morning also, I believe FOX, I kept thinking how can Bush do this, but as you said laws don't matter to him, he thinks he is all 3 branches of government rolled into one.

Zeezil,
You are very welcome for the information. if Canada can do this legally and efficiently, why can't we? We never read about Canadian crops "rotting in the fields", or of Canadian growers being unable to compete abroad because they don't have a "reliable supply of workers"!

And, how can the Administration do this? We have learned about the power of the "Executive Order" - perhaps that is what will be used. And I am sure they are going to work construction workers into this somehow -if not now, somewhere else. Perhaps we should be contacting the White House directly in addition to our Congressmen in opposition to this planned expansion:

White House Telephone Comments Line: (202) 456-1111.
Email: comments@whitehouse.gov

Most of the initiatives dealt with increased enforcement, the most prominent being a measure that would force employers to either fire workers for whom they've received "no match" notification.

Of course, the "no match" aspect of supposed increased enforcement was revealed to be worthless even before it was gutted by the liberal San Francisco judges.

_________________

Call the Senate: NO AgJOBS Amnesty !