Pause on H-2A visas due to coronavirus sparks concern of ag labor shortage

UPDATE: Pause on H-2A visas due to coronavirus sparks concern of ag labor shortage

• By Riley Bunch rbunch@cnhi.com

• 5 hrs ago

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Derrek Vaughn | TheValdosta Daily Times Migrant workers are seen in a Lowndes County field.

ATLANTA — Georgia farmers are bracing for a potential labor shortage as harvest season approaches after the federal government decided to limit foreign workers in an effort to prevent COVID-19 spread.

The state’s fruit and vegetable producers are highly dependent on workers through the H-2A guest worker program — a federal program that brings migrant workers from neighboring countries seasonally to work in U.S. agriculture.

Citing domestic labor shortages, Georgia agriculture leaders have been pushing for a new updated program with more flexibility, but now with restrictions amid the global pandemic, even the current system is facing limitations.

To reduce virus transmission, as of last week, interviews in the approval process for new foreign worker visas in Mexico are being put completely on hold. Only guest workers who have previously worked in the U.S. under the program can be granted waivers.

Georgia is the nation’s highest user of the program. During fiscal year 2019, the Peach State surpassed all others, with 12% of the total workforce coming out of the H-2A program, according to the federal Office of Foreign Labor Certification. Nationwide in fiscal year 2018, 242,000 seasonal foreign workers were approved for hire.

A “justified uproar” came from farmers across the country when word first came out that the visa program was going to be halted altogether, Georgia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black told CNHI.

“It was 100% a direct emotional impact,” he said. “For farmers, the overriding concern is: are they going to have enough workers and will they arrive on time.”

Black said he immediately contacted U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s staff who have given him assurance that concern had already been relayed to Vice President Mike Pence’s coronavirus task force.

Some relief came with clarification that returning workers would not face obstacles, Black said. But the issue remains that new workers are blocked from helping Georgia farmers with spring harvest.

“(Federal officials) know very well know the central nature of agriculture,” Black said. “This important time as spring harvest begins, they know that's critical. I have every expectation that they're going to do every time they possibly can.”

Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, said that the program faces different challenges every year. Hall said producers were prepared for workers to be held at the border for officials to confirm their documentation.

“That's what we thought was gonna be our challenge this year, is making sure that if we had workers stopped at the border we had resources in place to try to get them on through,” Hall said. “But it's certainly larger than that now. It's the overall issue of allowing the workers to come in because of the virus and how do we handle that.”

If need for labor goes unfilled by the program, he said, “there will be crops in the field that can't get harvested.”

Rep. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, said with Georgia having the largest number of employers leveraging the program in the country, usually he gets dozens of calls from farmers having trouble getting workers across the border.

“The fact that we have difficulty in a normal year just is makes this even more nerve-racking,” he said.

With spring harvest closing in, Watson said, “we’re in a critical time.”

Bill Brim, CEO of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, said about 80% of the guest workers that come to his farm are new employees that under the federal restrictions, wouldn’t be allowed to come into the U.S.

Lewis Taylor Farms is one of the largest employers in Tift County and one of the largest operations of its kind in the Southeast. The farm encompasses 7,000 acres of produce such as squash, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, specialty peppers, strawberries, a variety of greens, broccoli and melons.

Out of about 715 employees, Brim said, 500 are contracted migrant workers through the H-2A program.

Now, he's scrambling to re-do paperwork to request returning workers. Brim said he does not suspect he will have enough workers for harvest.

“We’re trying to harvest a crop to feed this country,” he said, “and they’re making it harder on us.”

https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/n...156702290.html

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Suspension of visa processing for Mexican seasonal workers hits U.S. farms, fisheries

As harvest season begins amid the coronavirus pandemic, farms and fisheries responsible for feeding the U.S. are expecting fewer guest workers

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Fruit pickers work in a strawberry field in Florida last winter. Farmers are bracing for a labor shortage this year as the State Department suspends the processing of seasonal worker visas across Mexico. (Zack Wittman for The Washington Post)

By Tracy Jan and Laura Reiley
March 18, 2020 at 11:19 a.m. PDT

American farmers are bracing for a shortage of seasonal workers following the State Department’s suspension of routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa processing in Mexico, including for temporary migrant laborers, beginning Wednesday.

The delay in visa processing for farmworkers comes just as harvest season begins in Florida.

Companies responsible for feeding the country are already expecting fewer available workers to manufacture, deliver and unpack groceries as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies.

The seafood industry, including fisheries and crab-picking in Maryland, whose hiring season starts in April, will also be affected by the U.S. government’s decision.

“One of the most important things we need to do is to make sure that our supply chains for food stay in place, and guest workers are a big part of what drives that engine,” said Sarah Frey, founder and chief executive of Frey Farms, which operates in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and West Virginia. “We have to figure out ways to keep going. Right now, feeding people is an essential service.”

Frey said she was making calls to lawmakers until midnight all week, extolling the important role migrant farmworkers play in the U.S. food supply.

Of the 500 to 600 workers Frey employs during peak season, about 250 are on H-2A seasonal worker visas.

Frey said she was expecting her first crew of two dozen workers to come from Mexico in 10 days to help with the watermelon and tomato harvest in LaBelle, Fla. She is expecting more migrant workers through the spring and summer, picking fruits and vegetables at her farms in Indiana and Missouri, and harvesting pumpkins come fall.

The American Farm Bureau Federation warned that the suspension in visa processing in Mexico could have a major effect on agricultural production.

“Under the new restrictions, American farmers will not have access to all of the skilled immigrant labor needed at a critical time in the planting season.

This threatens our ability to put food on Americans’ tables,” federation president Zippy Duvall said in a statement.

Agricultural workers of the future may soon be made of tech and steel. Can a robot pick a strawberry better, faster, and cheaper than a seasonal farmworker?

The federation said it is working with the Trump administration to find safe, practical ways to admit farm laborers as emergency workers under the H-2A guest worker program. “Failing to do so will impact our ability to provide a healthy, affordable domestic food supply,” Duvall said.

Many seasonal workers will still be granted entry.

The State Department is allowing laborers with previous work experience in the United States and who do not require in-person interviews to return, according to the federation. In 2019, 258,000 migrant workers received H-2A visas, the vast majority of whom were from Mexico.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said the agency is working with the State Department to ensure minimal disruption in visa applications.

The State Department told The Washington Post Wednesday that it is “aware” of the importance of the seasonal foreign worker program to the country’s economy and food security and said it is reviewing all options.

The agency has told industry associations that it intends to continue processing H-2A visas for agricultural workers and H-2B visas for seasonal laborers in the seafood, landscaping and other industries — but that it will modify its procedures “to facilitate the social distancing recommended by health authorities,” according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.

The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, said it would prioritize the processing of returning seasonal workers who are eligible for an interview waiver. “Because limited interview appointments will be available, we may cancel some first-time applicant appointments that have already been scheduled,” the email said. “First-time applications will not be processed if they are submitted as returning applicants.”

How has the coronavirus outbreak disrupted your life? Share your experience with The Post.

Allowing returning H-2A workers to be processed without interviews will help ease the plight of farmers counting on foreign labor, but it “certainly will not solve the entire problem,” said Mike Carlton, director of labor relations at the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Florida grows 300 commercial crops, nearly all of which depend on migrant laborers, he said.

“We have very few domestic workers available to us,” Carlton said. “The numbers are not sustainable for us.”

Labor-intensive, hand-harvested crops will be hit the hardest by the delay in visa processing, he said, especially as crunchtime for Florida farms approaches in the fall.

Michael Schadler, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, a trade organization, says the state’s tomato producers rely especially on H-2A laborers.

“It’s become a bigger part of our workforce in recent years,” he said. “This latest development puts at risk a portion of our tomato crop from being harvested, as well as all kinds of crops from around the country. We need a quick resolution so that farmers can continue supplying fruits and vegetables to the country during this challenging time.”

The companies that feed America brace for labor shortages and worry about restocking shelves as pandemic intensifies

There will probably be widespread unemployment in the hospitality, travel and tourism fields due to coronavirus quarantines and curfews. But Carlton said laid-off hotel and restaurant workers are unlikely to fill the labor shortage in food production.

“It’s certainly a potential source of labor,” he says, “but it does require a certain amount of skill to be productive in harvesting fruits and vegetables. You need to get produce harvested when it’s ready to be harvested. Delays due to inexperienced workers could mean losses of crop. This work has not generally been something that domestic workers are willing to do.”

California is likely to be hardest hit, bringing in only half of the migrant labor it will need, according to Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel for Western Growers, a trade group. Historically 50 to 60 percent of the seasonal farmworkers are returning, Resnick said. Of those, 10 to 15 percent would have issues that would not qualify them for the interview waivers.

The state’s $50 billion agriculture industry produces nearly half of the nation’s fresh fruits and vegetables, and employs roughly 800,000 farmworkers. In the past five years, more than 40 percent of California farmers reportedly have been unable to hire all the workers they have needed, with many turning to mechanization to make up for the shortfall.

Growers in Salinas, Calif., will be affected first.

They were scheduled to have workers arrive at the end of March, working fields of lettuces and leafy greens.

“The application process requires that you apply two months before you need the workers,” Resnick said, “So summer fruits and vegetables could get stacked up like dominoes. It’s going to affect the entire country.”

In Virginia and Maryland, crab season opened this week in the Chesapeake Bay. Given the mild winter, crabs are already starting to scurry out of the mud and into the crab pots, said A.J. Erskine, who works for two seafood companies and is board chairman of the Virginia Seafood Council.

“That resource is going to be harvested but not processed because there’s not going to be any seasonable labor to help pick that crab meat,” Erskine said.

Seafood companies have Mexican migrant workers scheduled to cross the border over the next two weeks who may no longer be processed, industry representatives say.

“It’s going to be devastating to the Virginia commercial seafood industry if these crab pickers, bait packers and fish packers don’t get help,” said Mike Hutt, executive director of the Virginia Marine Products Board, which represents the state’s seafood industry. “The timing can’t be any worse. It’s possible that for some of these people, if they don’t get their workers, they could go out of business.”

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U.S. restricts visas for farmworkers, raising concerns about food supply

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