Bush administration officials said yesterday that they were trying to develop new rules for a recurring problem facing the nation’s farmers, not having enough laborers for the harvest. These new rules could bring in more foreign guest workers. This would prevent a recurrence of problems like growers’ letting their fruit rot.
Farm groups have long been asking the administration to ease the standards hurdles to make it easier to bring in guest workers, saying they face a crisis because the stepped-up federal immigration enforcement has reduced the number of farm workers. By many estimates, more than half of the nation’s 2.5 million farm workers are illegal immigrants.
“The program needs to be updated to reflect today’s economy and to utilize technological and other advances,” said a White House representative, Scott Stanzel.
Under the H-2A program, farmers can bring in temporary workers after demonstrating that American workers are not interested in the jobs however the main problem is the lengthy process of the H-2A application. That often takes so long that by the time some farmers obtained guest workers the harvest is over.
So The National Council of Agricultural Employers has urge the administration to easing housing requirements, reducing the required wages and increasing the types of work they are allowed to do. Grower groups have also urged the administration to ease requirements in newspaper advertisements to determine whether American workers want the jobs.
Sharon M. Hughes a council’s executive vice president said the number of farm workers available was down about 200,000 or nearly 10 percent, from last year because of more aggressive border enforcement. Currently, they bring in about 50,000 such workers a year.
“Right now,” she said, “the H-2A program provides about 2 percent of the farm work force and for us to try to double that number with the current government infrastructure would cause it to collapse on itself unless we have these reforms.”
Grower groups say they would prefer the H-2A program to create a path to citizenship for many undocumented farm workers. The main despite David James of The Department of Labor representative says, “Is identifying ways the program can be improved to provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow of legal workers while protecting the rights of both U.S. workers and foreign temporary workers.”
Nevertheless, advocates for farm workers feel that the system been flawed for years but has become even more evident with the crack down on illegal immigrants. The industry’s demands amounts of cheap foreign labor. By simplify the H-2A application, it would make it easier for employers to bring in guest workers and slash wage rates and other labor protections.
The administration also faces criticism from conservative groups that dislike bringing in more immigrants. Since we have an employment rate of 4.7% in America today. Many say why not give those jobs to Americans who really need it but the truth is that many immigrants do the jobs that most Americans don’t want. Therefore, what is the real answer and can we ever find a compromise?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/us/10immig.html
Farm groups have long been asking the administration to ease the standards hurdles to make it easier to bring in guest workers, saying they face a crisis because the stepped-up federal immigration enforcement has reduced the number of farm workers. By many estimates, more than half of the nation’s 2.5 million farm workers are illegal immigrants.“The program needs to be updated to reflect today’s economy and to utilize technological and other advances,” said a White House representative, Scott Stanzel.
Under the H-2A program, farmers can bring in temporary workers after demonstrating that American workers are not interested in the jobs however the main problem is the lengthy process of the H-2A application. That often takes so long that by the time some farmers obtained guest workers the harvest is over.
So The National Council of Agricultural Employers has urge the administration to easing housing requirements, reducing the required wages and increasing the types of work they are allowed to do. Grower groups have also urged the administration to ease requirements in newspaper advertisements to determine whether American workers want the jobs.
Sharon M. Hughes a council’s executive vice president said the number of farm workers available was down about 200,000 or nearly 10 percent, from last year because of more aggressive border enforcement. Currently, they bring in about 50,000 such workers a year.
“Right now,” she said, “the H-2A program provides about 2 percent of the farm work force and for us to try to double that number with the current government infrastructure would cause it to collapse on itself unless we have these reforms.”
Grower groups say they would prefer the H-2A program to create a path to citizenship for many undocumented farm workers. The main despite David James of The Department of Labor representative says, “Is identifying ways the program can be improved to provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow of legal workers while protecting the rights of both U.S. workers and foreign temporary workers.”
Nevertheless, advocates for farm workers feel that the system been flawed for years but has become even more evident with the crack down on illegal immigrants. The industry’s demands amounts of cheap foreign labor. By simplify the H-2A application, it would make it easier for employers to bring in guest workers and slash wage rates and other labor protections.
The administration also faces criticism from conservative groups that dislike bringing in more immigrants. Since we have an employment rate of 4.7% in America today. Many say why not give those jobs to Americans who really need it but the truth is that many immigrants do the jobs that most Americans don’t want. Therefore, what is the real answer and can we ever find a compromise?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/us/10immig.html
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