By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration said Friday that it plans to significantly raise fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, part of a broader effort that includes improved border security after Congress failed to pass immigration-related legislation in 2007.
The hikes in employer fines will be the first since 1999. The new policy is the latest aimed at the most sensitive pressure point in illegal immigration: businesses that employ the workers.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has intensified raids on rogue companies in the last three years, prosecuting executives on criminal charges and arresting workers, who often use valid Social Security numbers, for identity theft.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff offered examples Friday of his agency's heightened focus on company executives, including the human resources director of a Missouri poultry plant now facing a 10-year prison sentence for hiring illegal immigrants. Chertoff also pointed to the owner of an Indiana construction firm sentenced to 18 months in jail and forced to forfeit $1.4 million.
"These are the kinds of cases that have high impact on those who would hire and employ undocumented illegal aliens," he said. He described the increase in penalties as "part of our effort to continue to make it less appealing for people to break the law" and "a way to keep that pressure up."
Chertoff said that the administration was acting to fill a vacuum left by Congress and that remedies were needed to deal with illegal immigration and to improve the system through which people enter the U.S. legally.
"Congress didn't give us comprehensive immigration reform, so we're going to do what we can with the tools that we have, and frankly we've made progress and done quite a bit," he said.
In an hourlong briefing, Chertoff and Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey discussed the escalating violence along the southwest border prompted by "alien smugglers, drug smugglers, gun smugglers and the like," and called on Congress to provide more funding to combat it. Mukasey called border enforcement needs "massive."
"Given the magnitude of the threat, it is imperative that new resources be added," he said.
The increased fines will take effect March 27. The minimum penalty will increase by $100, to $375. The maximum fine for a first-time offender will jump $1,000, to $3,200. And the maximum fine for repeated violations will rise $5,000, to $16,000. Fines are assessed on a per-person basis, so an employer with 10 illegal immigrants on staff would pay 10 fines.
The two officials said the administration was adding border agents and prosecutors, as well as extending fencing and vehicle barriers.
Chertoff also announced administration approval of an experimental "virtual fence" that includes cameras powerful enough to spot border crossers 10 miles away. It also can determine whether they are carrying weapons or water jugs.
Known as "Project 28" for the 28 miles in Arizona scanned by the technology, it has been fiercely criticized in Congress for its rocky progress. Homeland Security officials held back some payments to its contractor, Boeing, last year because the system did not function properly. But the agency had already paid $15 million of the $20 million contract, and work continued on it.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed skepticism about the project, terming it "a system that has been described as providing at best 'marginal' functionality."
However, spokeswoman Laura Keehner said the agency would begin expanding the virtual fence as early as this summer and was considering areas in Arizona and Texas. There are no plans yet to use the system in California.
Chertoff watched the system during a Feb. 7 trip to the Arizona border and praised it Friday. "I have spoken directly to the Border Patrol agents who are involved in operating that system over the last few months and who have seen it produce actual results in terms of identifying and allowing the apprehension of people who are illegally smuggling across the border," he said.
Chertoff added that his agency had built 302.4 miles of physical fencing and vehicle barriers as of Thursday, and was on schedule to finish 670 miles by the end of 2008.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
H-2A Articles
February 7, 2008
White House Moves to Ease Guest Worker Program
By JULIA PRESTON
The Bush administration announced plans on Wednesday to overhaul the notoriously inefficient federal guest worker program for agriculture, seeking to provide more legal workers to American farmers who now rely primarily on illegal immigrants.
Since legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrant farm workers failed last year in Congress, the administration is now taking action that does not require Congressional approval to streamline the existing guest worker program.
Most farmers have shunned the program, known as H2A for the type of visa the foreign farm workers receive, because it was too cumbersome to meet their fast-moving harvest labor needs.
Growers cautiously welcomed the proposed changes, saying they would be helpful but would fall far short of solving the shortage of legal workers. Advocates for farm workers warned that the measures would lower wages for those who are already in the United States.
After Congress last year rejected several immigration bills that President Bush supported, he first sought to move forward on the divisive issue by stepping up enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants. Now the administration is seeking to help farm employers hire immigrant workers legally.
The changes were announced at a news conference Wednesday morning in Washington by Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security; Elaine L. Chao, labor secretary; and Chuck Conner, deputy agriculture secretary. They unveiled proposed rule revisions that will be open for public comment for 60 days. Administration officials said they hoped to have the final rules in place in time for the summer harvest.
Under the proposed rules, the Labor Department would accept farm employers’ statements that they had tried to recruit local workers and had found none who were qualified and available. Currently, farmers must repeatedly go to state employment offices to show that they have conducted the required search for American workers. The new application process would allow employers to bypass those state agencies and apply directly at two federal centers.
“We want to substantially reduce that time-consuming, cumbersome back-and-forth with multiple government offices for employers,” said Leon R. Sequeira, assistant secretary of labor.
The Labor Department would also start random audits of H2A employers, and would greatly increase the fines if farmers failed to meet required conditions.
Fines for employers found to have displaced American workers by hiring foreign ones would increase to $15,000 from $1,000. Fines for violating the terms of an H2A guest worker’s contract would increase to $5,000 from $1,000.
The new rules would increase the time allowed for employers to conduct required inspections of housing they must provide for guest workers. Labor officials would use a different, more localized survey to determine the wages that employers must pay guest workers.
The Department of Homeland Security would allow employers to request numbers of workers without specifying names of individuals they wanted to hire, and would also make it easier for immigrant farm workers to move from one job to another without leaving the United States, officials said. Ms. Chao said that as many as 800,000 current farm workers, or about two-thirds of the agricultural work force, were illegal immigrants. “There simply are not enough U.S. workers to fill the hundreds of thousands of agricultural jobs” in the country, she said.
Farmers have avoided the current H2A program because it is so sluggish. It currently supplies only about 75,000 foreign workers out of 1.2 million farm workers employed at peak harvest, or less than 2 percent.
“We welcome any reforms that will help family farmers hire people who are legally able to work in the United States,” said Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau, a growers’ organization.
Mr. Mosebar said Congress should pass legislation known as AgJobs, which would provide a path to legal status for illegal immigrants, to resolve farm labor instability.
Advocates for farm workers said the wage rates proposed under the new rules would be lower than current pay.
“We’re concerned this proposal will allow thousands of agricultural employers to bring in cheap foreign labor from poor countries and undermine the standards of farm workers in this country, which already are too low,” said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice.
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which calls for reducing immigration, said, “It looks as though the government is relaxing the rules to make it easier for agricultural employers to hire workers at whatever wages they want to dictate.”
Farm-Worker Plan Aims
To Curb Illegal Hires
By JOHN D. MCKINNON and MIRIAM JORDAN
February 7, 2008; Page A10
The Bush administration rolled out a set of proposed rules aimed at stanching the flow of undocumented workers who have been crossing the border to work on U.S. farms.
The rules would encourage farmers to hire more legal guest workers from other countries under a 20-year-old visa program covering agricultural workers. The changes would modernize what is known as the H-2A visa program by loosening many of its stricter requirements, particularly on wages that must be paid to guest workers and on housing. Currently, critics of U.S. immigration policy say, farmers are encouraged to hire illegal workers because they are so much cheaper than legal guest workers or U.S. residents.
Groups that push for better conditions for immigrants were critical of the changes, saying they could lead to worse conditions for legal immigrant workers. The government's recent efforts to crack down on illegal immigration alone should get employers to start using the H-2A program and putting more workers under its wage and housing guidelines, said Bruce Goldstein of Farmworker Justice. Instead, he said, the changes appear aimed at "making it easier and cheaper for agricultural employers to hire [legal] temporary farm workers from poor countries," he said. "There is no valid justification for doing this."
Some farmers also questioned whether it would be effective in straightening out what has become a tangle of red tape. For example, they said, the changes leave out some types of agriculture, such as dairy farms.
"This is not the solution," said Maureen Torrey, who runs Torrey Farms in Elba, N.Y., and is a former chairman of United Fresh Produce, a farm-industry group. "It could be part of a short-term solution, after we look at it. But we need real immigration reform to give us a workable guest-worker program. We need action by Congress."
The government estimates that only about 75,000 workers take part in the H-2A program, while there are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrant workers on U.S. farms. Some private-sector estimates of the number of undocumented farm workers run higher.
Farmers complain that the H-2A program's rules on wages and working conditions leave them open to lawsuits from worker advocates. But some farm-worker advocates -- as well as some critics of U.S. immigration policy -- say illegal workers are simply cheaper to employ.
The new regulations are likely to narrow that cost gap. But Jack Martin, special-projects director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a critic of U.S. immigration policy, said the real key is stepping up enforcement to reduce the supply of illegal workers and to discourage farmers from seeking out illegal immigrants in the first place. Without that, "this change in regulations will not have a major effect," he said.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com1 and Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com2
Farmworker rule changes proposed
Some critical of wage, housing provisions
By Stephen Franklin
TRIBUNE REPORTER
February 7, 2008
The Bush administration laid out a series of broad changes Wednesday to the program that brings foreign farmworkers into the U.S., predicting such workers will be better protected and farmers will face less red tape.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in a statement accompanying the 186-page proposal for changes in the H-2A program, described the revisions as a "common-sense simplification" that would allow for a more "orderly and timely flow of legal workers."
With Congress' failure to agree on immigration reform, the Bush administration vowed to reform the government's guest-worker programs so that short-term hires would replace some of the illegal immigrants who make up the bulk of the 1.6 million workers on the nation's farms.
Farmworker advocates and agricultural industry officials were critical, however, of the first rewrite of the guest-worker regulations in 20 years. But both cited different reasons.
Bruce Goldstein, head of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said the changes would be "devastating" to workers. Wages would be "slashed" as a result of a shift to a new system for calculating salaries, and workers could face unsafe housing if farmers have the option of providing vouchers for the housing, he said. Under the current system, workers are given free housing.
Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary for policy at the Labor Department, said, however, that some workers' wages might decline, while others would receive pay increases.
Craig Regelbrugge, a spokesman for the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, praised the administration for trying to "make a bad situation better." But any solution needs to deal with the reality that the industry relies on "the shifting sands of a mostly unauthorized labor force," he said.
In addition, Regelbrugge said, the changes are unlikely to provide immediate relief for farmers who have faced a growing worker shortage, since the revisions aren't likely to take effect until 2009.
Under the proposed changes, wages would be based on skill levels and local salaries. Now, the government sets the wages by region, and all workers receive the same salary. Employers also no longer would file applications for workers through state employment agencies, but rather through the Labor Department.
Fines against employers for violating regulations would grow to $5,000 from $1,000, and for the first time the government could impose a $50,000 fine for a violation that caused a worker's death. Employers also would be required to spend more time recruiting locally before applying for foreign help.
Though farmers have long complained about the costs and red tape involved in the H-2A program, the number of workers brought to the U.S. has been growing steadily.
Last year about 75,000 foreign workers were brought in, according to the government. Officials hope the changes will spur a "significant increase" in employers' use of the program, Sequeira said.
sfranklin@tribune.com
White House Moves to Ease Guest Worker Program
By JULIA PRESTON
The Bush administration announced plans on Wednesday to overhaul the notoriously inefficient federal guest worker program for agriculture, seeking to provide more legal workers to American farmers who now rely primarily on illegal immigrants.
Since legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrant farm workers failed last year in Congress, the administration is now taking action that does not require Congressional approval to streamline the existing guest worker program.
Most farmers have shunned the program, known as H2A for the type of visa the foreign farm workers receive, because it was too cumbersome to meet their fast-moving harvest labor needs.
Growers cautiously welcomed the proposed changes, saying they would be helpful but would fall far short of solving the shortage of legal workers. Advocates for farm workers warned that the measures would lower wages for those who are already in the United States.
After Congress last year rejected several immigration bills that President Bush supported, he first sought to move forward on the divisive issue by stepping up enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants. Now the administration is seeking to help farm employers hire immigrant workers legally.
The changes were announced at a news conference Wednesday morning in Washington by Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security; Elaine L. Chao, labor secretary; and Chuck Conner, deputy agriculture secretary. They unveiled proposed rule revisions that will be open for public comment for 60 days. Administration officials said they hoped to have the final rules in place in time for the summer harvest.
Under the proposed rules, the Labor Department would accept farm employers’ statements that they had tried to recruit local workers and had found none who were qualified and available. Currently, farmers must repeatedly go to state employment offices to show that they have conducted the required search for American workers. The new application process would allow employers to bypass those state agencies and apply directly at two federal centers.
“We want to substantially reduce that time-consuming, cumbersome back-and-forth with multiple government offices for employers,” said Leon R. Sequeira, assistant secretary of labor.
The Labor Department would also start random audits of H2A employers, and would greatly increase the fines if farmers failed to meet required conditions.
Fines for employers found to have displaced American workers by hiring foreign ones would increase to $15,000 from $1,000. Fines for violating the terms of an H2A guest worker’s contract would increase to $5,000 from $1,000.
The new rules would increase the time allowed for employers to conduct required inspections of housing they must provide for guest workers. Labor officials would use a different, more localized survey to determine the wages that employers must pay guest workers.
The Department of Homeland Security would allow employers to request numbers of workers without specifying names of individuals they wanted to hire, and would also make it easier for immigrant farm workers to move from one job to another without leaving the United States, officials said. Ms. Chao said that as many as 800,000 current farm workers, or about two-thirds of the agricultural work force, were illegal immigrants. “There simply are not enough U.S. workers to fill the hundreds of thousands of agricultural jobs” in the country, she said.
Farmers have avoided the current H2A program because it is so sluggish. It currently supplies only about 75,000 foreign workers out of 1.2 million farm workers employed at peak harvest, or less than 2 percent.
“We welcome any reforms that will help family farmers hire people who are legally able to work in the United States,” said Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau, a growers’ organization.
Mr. Mosebar said Congress should pass legislation known as AgJobs, which would provide a path to legal status for illegal immigrants, to resolve farm labor instability.
Advocates for farm workers said the wage rates proposed under the new rules would be lower than current pay.
“We’re concerned this proposal will allow thousands of agricultural employers to bring in cheap foreign labor from poor countries and undermine the standards of farm workers in this country, which already are too low,” said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice.
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which calls for reducing immigration, said, “It looks as though the government is relaxing the rules to make it easier for agricultural employers to hire workers at whatever wages they want to dictate.”
Farm-Worker Plan Aims
To Curb Illegal Hires
By JOHN D. MCKINNON and MIRIAM JORDAN
February 7, 2008; Page A10
The Bush administration rolled out a set of proposed rules aimed at stanching the flow of undocumented workers who have been crossing the border to work on U.S. farms.
The rules would encourage farmers to hire more legal guest workers from other countries under a 20-year-old visa program covering agricultural workers. The changes would modernize what is known as the H-2A visa program by loosening many of its stricter requirements, particularly on wages that must be paid to guest workers and on housing. Currently, critics of U.S. immigration policy say, farmers are encouraged to hire illegal workers because they are so much cheaper than legal guest workers or U.S. residents.
Groups that push for better conditions for immigrants were critical of the changes, saying they could lead to worse conditions for legal immigrant workers. The government's recent efforts to crack down on illegal immigration alone should get employers to start using the H-2A program and putting more workers under its wage and housing guidelines, said Bruce Goldstein of Farmworker Justice. Instead, he said, the changes appear aimed at "making it easier and cheaper for agricultural employers to hire [legal] temporary farm workers from poor countries," he said. "There is no valid justification for doing this."
Some farmers also questioned whether it would be effective in straightening out what has become a tangle of red tape. For example, they said, the changes leave out some types of agriculture, such as dairy farms.
"This is not the solution," said Maureen Torrey, who runs Torrey Farms in Elba, N.Y., and is a former chairman of United Fresh Produce, a farm-industry group. "It could be part of a short-term solution, after we look at it. But we need real immigration reform to give us a workable guest-worker program. We need action by Congress."
The government estimates that only about 75,000 workers take part in the H-2A program, while there are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrant workers on U.S. farms. Some private-sector estimates of the number of undocumented farm workers run higher.
Farmers complain that the H-2A program's rules on wages and working conditions leave them open to lawsuits from worker advocates. But some farm-worker advocates -- as well as some critics of U.S. immigration policy -- say illegal workers are simply cheaper to employ.
The new regulations are likely to narrow that cost gap. But Jack Martin, special-projects director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a critic of U.S. immigration policy, said the real key is stepping up enforcement to reduce the supply of illegal workers and to discourage farmers from seeking out illegal immigrants in the first place. Without that, "this change in regulations will not have a major effect," he said.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com1 and Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com2
Farmworker rule changes proposed
Some critical of wage, housing provisions
By Stephen Franklin
TRIBUNE REPORTER
February 7, 2008
The Bush administration laid out a series of broad changes Wednesday to the program that brings foreign farmworkers into the U.S., predicting such workers will be better protected and farmers will face less red tape.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in a statement accompanying the 186-page proposal for changes in the H-2A program, described the revisions as a "common-sense simplification" that would allow for a more "orderly and timely flow of legal workers."
With Congress' failure to agree on immigration reform, the Bush administration vowed to reform the government's guest-worker programs so that short-term hires would replace some of the illegal immigrants who make up the bulk of the 1.6 million workers on the nation's farms.
Farmworker advocates and agricultural industry officials were critical, however, of the first rewrite of the guest-worker regulations in 20 years. But both cited different reasons.
Bruce Goldstein, head of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said the changes would be "devastating" to workers. Wages would be "slashed" as a result of a shift to a new system for calculating salaries, and workers could face unsafe housing if farmers have the option of providing vouchers for the housing, he said. Under the current system, workers are given free housing.
Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary for policy at the Labor Department, said, however, that some workers' wages might decline, while others would receive pay increases.
Craig Regelbrugge, a spokesman for the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, praised the administration for trying to "make a bad situation better." But any solution needs to deal with the reality that the industry relies on "the shifting sands of a mostly unauthorized labor force," he said.
In addition, Regelbrugge said, the changes are unlikely to provide immediate relief for farmers who have faced a growing worker shortage, since the revisions aren't likely to take effect until 2009.
Under the proposed changes, wages would be based on skill levels and local salaries. Now, the government sets the wages by region, and all workers receive the same salary. Employers also no longer would file applications for workers through state employment agencies, but rather through the Labor Department.
Fines against employers for violating regulations would grow to $5,000 from $1,000, and for the first time the government could impose a $50,000 fine for a violation that caused a worker's death. Employers also would be required to spend more time recruiting locally before applying for foreign help.
Though farmers have long complained about the costs and red tape involved in the H-2A program, the number of workers brought to the U.S. has been growing steadily.
Last year about 75,000 foreign workers were brought in, according to the government. Officials hope the changes will spur a "significant increase" in employers' use of the program, Sequeira said.
sfranklin@tribune.com
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
New H-2A Guest Worker Program
Overhaul set for guest-worker plan
Bush administration to make dramatic changes to increase numbers of legal foreign workers to harvest crops.
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 6, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration today plans to announce the most significant overhaul in two decades of the nation's agricultural guest worker program, in a bid to dramatically increase the number of legal foreign laborers available to harvest crops.
The revised regulations, many months in the works, would make it easier for growers to bring foreign workers to the United States and could alleviate the critical farmworker shortage largely caused by the U.S. crackdown on illegal border crossings.
After Congress failed to overhaul immigration laws last 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," said Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor.
The greatest effect would be in California, the nation's largest agricultural state. Some farmers have had to plow rotting crops back into their fields for lack of workers at harvest time. But lawmakers and growers said Tuesday that more than an administrative fix was needed to solve the state's chronic farm labor shortages.
The proposed changes to the program, which would relax the requirements for the H-2A visas granted to foreign farmworkers, come against a backdrop of growing anger over illegal immigration and tension among the presidential candidates over the issue.
The new regulations could be a boon to growers, who have long complained that the program is too cumbersome and leaves them little choice but to turn to illegal immigrants.
The simplified rules are certain to generate outrage among anti-immigration activists, who say the program steals jobs from Americans. At the same time, advocates for farmworkers charge that under the new rules, growers could exploit workers by paying them less than they do now.
The proposed changes, which would take effect after a 45-day period of public comment, would modify how foreign laborers are paid and housed, and slightly expand the types of industries that can use the program. The administration would also ease the standards farmers must now meet to show they have tried to hire U.S. citizens first.
"The overarching departmental goal is to encourage the use of the H-2A program to provide agricultural employers access to legal workers," said the Labor Department's Sequeira.
Sequeira noted that, of the nation's 1.2 million farmworkers, more than half tell Labor Department surveyors that they are in the U.S. illegally. Many advocates believe the actual percentage of illegal workers is close to 70%.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was skeptical that the proposed changes would make much difference, noting that only about 2% of farm jobs are now filled through the notoriously bureaucratic program. "Growers frequently cannot get labor through the H-2A program when they need it. Simply tweaking regulations can't fix that problem," she said. "I'm afraid that these H-2A modifications make a bad situation worse -- by lowering wage rates and undermining existing labor protections for U.S. and foreign farmworkers."
Feinstein pushed for Congress to pass a farm labor bill that was negotiated over years by worker advocates, industry groups and unions, but failed to move forward this year in the politically fraught uproar surrounding immigration. That bill, called AgJOBS, would create a new guest worker program that would allow laborers to eventually become citizens.
"The key to real reform is AgJOBS. Growers support it. Workers support it. And bipartisan majorities in Congress support it," Feinstein said. "It would provide incentives for a stable, reliable agricultural workforce and provide long-term H-2A reform."
'A question of execution'
In addition to the Labor Department, the departments of State, Homeland Security and Agriculture have a role in the program. Labor and Homeland Security focused on making the program easier for growers to use, strengthening worker protections and improving enforcement, but critics questioned how these proposals would actually work.
"It's going to be a question of execution," said a Senate aide briefed on the changes. The aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record, expressed concern about some proposals, including a change to the way workers are paid.
One of the proposed changes would set wages based on a worker's occupation and skill level. "Depending on how it's done, it has the potential to lower farmworkers' wages, potentially significantly," said the aide.
Other changes would give workers more time to search for a new H-2A job after their existing one ends. Employers would have to certify under penalty of perjury that they wouldn't change the terms of work after they hired the temporary workers.
Tracking program
Homeland Security would create a pilot program to track whether H-2A workers leave the country when their visas expire.
Employers that violate the program's regulations would face substantially higher fines and penalties. Growers would also be forbidden from passing along to workers any costs incurred from participating in the program.
Farmworker advocates called those provisions promising, but harshly criticized administration proposals to ease regulations concerning U.S. workers, including one that requires growers to go through several steps to show they have tried to hire an American before they can bring in H-2A workers.
"These employers routinely violate the law already and we need more law enforcement under the H-2A program, not less," said Bruce Goldstein, of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group affiliated with the National Council of La Raza. "They're just looking for some formula to lower wage rates of both U.S. workers and foreign workers.
"There is no economic or moral justification for these harsh changes."
But growers singled out the same proposal for praise and cautiously commended the overhaul.
"Government is infamous for having different agencies not work together well, not understanding each other's roles and not particularly caring," said Michael Gempler, current president of the National Council of Agriculture Employers.
"As a result the consumer suffers, so this is a very valuable thing to do."
nicole.gaouette@latimes.com
Bush administration to make dramatic changes to increase numbers of legal foreign workers to harvest crops.
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 6, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration today plans to announce the most significant overhaul in two decades of the nation's agricultural guest worker program, in a bid to dramatically increase the number of legal foreign laborers available to harvest crops.
The revised regulations, many months in the works, would make it easier for growers to bring foreign workers to the United States and could alleviate the critical farmworker shortage largely caused by the U.S. crackdown on illegal border crossings.
After Congress failed to overhaul immigration laws last 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," said Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor.
The greatest effect would be in California, the nation's largest agricultural state. Some farmers have had to plow rotting crops back into their fields for lack of workers at harvest time. But lawmakers and growers said Tuesday that more than an administrative fix was needed to solve the state's chronic farm labor shortages.
The proposed changes to the program, which would relax the requirements for the H-2A visas granted to foreign farmworkers, come against a backdrop of growing anger over illegal immigration and tension among the presidential candidates over the issue.
The new regulations could be a boon to growers, who have long complained that the program is too cumbersome and leaves them little choice but to turn to illegal immigrants.
The simplified rules are certain to generate outrage among anti-immigration activists, who say the program steals jobs from Americans. At the same time, advocates for farmworkers charge that under the new rules, growers could exploit workers by paying them less than they do now.
The proposed changes, which would take effect after a 45-day period of public comment, would modify how foreign laborers are paid and housed, and slightly expand the types of industries that can use the program. The administration would also ease the standards farmers must now meet to show they have tried to hire U.S. citizens first.
"The overarching departmental goal is to encourage the use of the H-2A program to provide agricultural employers access to legal workers," said the Labor Department's Sequeira.
Sequeira noted that, of the nation's 1.2 million farmworkers, more than half tell Labor Department surveyors that they are in the U.S. illegally. Many advocates believe the actual percentage of illegal workers is close to 70%.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was skeptical that the proposed changes would make much difference, noting that only about 2% of farm jobs are now filled through the notoriously bureaucratic program. "Growers frequently cannot get labor through the H-2A program when they need it. Simply tweaking regulations can't fix that problem," she said. "I'm afraid that these H-2A modifications make a bad situation worse -- by lowering wage rates and undermining existing labor protections for U.S. and foreign farmworkers."
Feinstein pushed for Congress to pass a farm labor bill that was negotiated over years by worker advocates, industry groups and unions, but failed to move forward this year in the politically fraught uproar surrounding immigration. That bill, called AgJOBS, would create a new guest worker program that would allow laborers to eventually become citizens.
"The key to real reform is AgJOBS. Growers support it. Workers support it. And bipartisan majorities in Congress support it," Feinstein said. "It would provide incentives for a stable, reliable agricultural workforce and provide long-term H-2A reform."
'A question of execution'
In addition to the Labor Department, the departments of State, Homeland Security and Agriculture have a role in the program. Labor and Homeland Security focused on making the program easier for growers to use, strengthening worker protections and improving enforcement, but critics questioned how these proposals would actually work.
"It's going to be a question of execution," said a Senate aide briefed on the changes. The aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record, expressed concern about some proposals, including a change to the way workers are paid.
One of the proposed changes would set wages based on a worker's occupation and skill level. "Depending on how it's done, it has the potential to lower farmworkers' wages, potentially significantly," said the aide.
Other changes would give workers more time to search for a new H-2A job after their existing one ends. Employers would have to certify under penalty of perjury that they wouldn't change the terms of work after they hired the temporary workers.
Tracking program
Homeland Security would create a pilot program to track whether H-2A workers leave the country when their visas expire.
Employers that violate the program's regulations would face substantially higher fines and penalties. Growers would also be forbidden from passing along to workers any costs incurred from participating in the program.
Farmworker advocates called those provisions promising, but harshly criticized administration proposals to ease regulations concerning U.S. workers, including one that requires growers to go through several steps to show they have tried to hire an American before they can bring in H-2A workers.
"These employers routinely violate the law already and we need more law enforcement under the H-2A program, not less," said Bruce Goldstein, of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group affiliated with the National Council of La Raza. "They're just looking for some formula to lower wage rates of both U.S. workers and foreign workers.
"There is no economic or moral justification for these harsh changes."
But growers singled out the same proposal for praise and cautiously commended the overhaul.
"Government is infamous for having different agencies not work together well, not understanding each other's roles and not particularly caring," said Michael Gempler, current president of the National Council of Agriculture Employers.
"As a result the consumer suffers, so this is a very valuable thing to do."
nicole.gaouette@latimes.com
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
H-2B Crisis
USA TODAY
February 5, 2008
Visa rule spells out 'help wanted' for some businesses
By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
Businesses that rely on seasonal workers are scrambling to fill positions, and some are shutting down, because there are fewer visas for the foreign workers who usually fill the jobs.
Industries from coast to coast say the reduction in visas for temporary workers will hurt them and the economy.
"We're thinking about shuttering the daggone thing," says John Graham of his crab processing company Graham & Rollins in Hampton, Va. Graham couldn't get visas this year for 110 Mexican workers who work from April to November alongside 18 locals.
Graham says he's the last crab processor in town. "I've survived where the other 17 didn't," he says. "Now something out of my control is going to take me out."
Exemption expires
Each year, 66,000 visas are designated for temporary workers in non-agricultural labor. They're called H-2B visas. Temporary agricultural workers have their own category, H-2A.
For the past three years, Congress allowed businesses to get H-2B visas for some returning workers without counting them against that 66,000 cap. In 2006, that exemption allowed visas to be issued to 51,000 returning workers, the State Department says. In September, after immigration overhaul legislation failed, that exemption expired. As a result, the limit was reached before some businesses were allowed to apply.
"As of this moment, we're not even going to be able to place one worker," says John Gallo, a consultant who helps businesses find up to 2,000 temporary workers each year.
Gallo says the H-2B program isn't controversial and offers businesses a legal way to bring in needed workers.
"This has nothing to do with immigration," he says. "Homeland Security knows who these people are. Social Security keeps on top of them. When their visa expires, they return home."
'We may have to scale back'
Gallo works with Gurney's Inn Resort, Spa & Conference Center in Montauk, N.Y., which applied for 90 workers from Jamaica, Ecuador and elsewhere for housekeeping, landscaping and other jobs. Most would have been returning workers. "We may have to scale back some on the amount of business we can accept in the prime season," general manager Paul Monte says.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, and other lawmakers have tried to renew the exemption, but the Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposed it. Democrat Joe Baca, chairman of the caucus, says the caucus doesn't object to H-2B visas but believes they should be part of overall immigration changes.
Businesses that apply for H-2Bs must take steps such as advertising jobs locally to give Americans first crack.
Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates reduced immigration, believes H-2Bs hurt American workers. "Businesses should recruit from their own country," he says.
'You don't get a deal'
Michael Loukonen of Loukonen Bros. Stone in Lyons, Colo., which mines sandstone, says locals don't want the backbreaking jobs that seasonal workers take. Loukonen couldn't get visas this year for 30 workers who make up about 60% of the company's peak workforce. "In the last five years, we've had three (local) people apply," he says. "Two of them didn't show. One showed and worked one day and said it was too hard and quit."
Jonathan Zeyl, president of Landscape Creations of Rhode Island, says businesses that use H-2B visas pay fair wages and the workers pay taxes. Zeyl wasn't able to get visas for 40 workers, nearly all of his peak-season labor.
"My wife and I and my managers have fairly strong feelings about operating within the law," he says. "I'm bitter about having the rug pulled out from under me."
"My payroll can run over $25,000 a week," he says. "You don't get a deal on the labor. What you do get is … guys who work all day long and don't complain about the heavy, monotonous work."
Circus Chimera canceled its season this year. James Judkins, owner of the no-animal circus, which performs mostly in the Southwest and West, had to lay off local, year-round employees because he couldn't get 50 visas for workers who perform, put up tents and do other jobs. They were 90% of his staff.
Canceling his season will hurt other businesses, too, he says. "I'm not going to be buying circus posters from the printing company," he says. "I'm not going to be buying advertising in the newspaper."
February 5, 2008
Visa rule spells out 'help wanted' for some businesses
By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
Businesses that rely on seasonal workers are scrambling to fill positions, and some are shutting down, because there are fewer visas for the foreign workers who usually fill the jobs.
Industries from coast to coast say the reduction in visas for temporary workers will hurt them and the economy.
"We're thinking about shuttering the daggone thing," says John Graham of his crab processing company Graham & Rollins in Hampton, Va. Graham couldn't get visas this year for 110 Mexican workers who work from April to November alongside 18 locals.
Graham says he's the last crab processor in town. "I've survived where the other 17 didn't," he says. "Now something out of my control is going to take me out."
Exemption expires
Each year, 66,000 visas are designated for temporary workers in non-agricultural labor. They're called H-2B visas. Temporary agricultural workers have their own category, H-2A.
For the past three years, Congress allowed businesses to get H-2B visas for some returning workers without counting them against that 66,000 cap. In 2006, that exemption allowed visas to be issued to 51,000 returning workers, the State Department says. In September, after immigration overhaul legislation failed, that exemption expired. As a result, the limit was reached before some businesses were allowed to apply.
"As of this moment, we're not even going to be able to place one worker," says John Gallo, a consultant who helps businesses find up to 2,000 temporary workers each year.
Gallo says the H-2B program isn't controversial and offers businesses a legal way to bring in needed workers.
"This has nothing to do with immigration," he says. "Homeland Security knows who these people are. Social Security keeps on top of them. When their visa expires, they return home."
'We may have to scale back'
Gallo works with Gurney's Inn Resort, Spa & Conference Center in Montauk, N.Y., which applied for 90 workers from Jamaica, Ecuador and elsewhere for housekeeping, landscaping and other jobs. Most would have been returning workers. "We may have to scale back some on the amount of business we can accept in the prime season," general manager Paul Monte says.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, and other lawmakers have tried to renew the exemption, but the Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposed it. Democrat Joe Baca, chairman of the caucus, says the caucus doesn't object to H-2B visas but believes they should be part of overall immigration changes.
Businesses that apply for H-2Bs must take steps such as advertising jobs locally to give Americans first crack.
Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that advocates reduced immigration, believes H-2Bs hurt American workers. "Businesses should recruit from their own country," he says.
'You don't get a deal'
Michael Loukonen of Loukonen Bros. Stone in Lyons, Colo., which mines sandstone, says locals don't want the backbreaking jobs that seasonal workers take. Loukonen couldn't get visas this year for 30 workers who make up about 60% of the company's peak workforce. "In the last five years, we've had three (local) people apply," he says. "Two of them didn't show. One showed and worked one day and said it was too hard and quit."
Jonathan Zeyl, president of Landscape Creations of Rhode Island, says businesses that use H-2B visas pay fair wages and the workers pay taxes. Zeyl wasn't able to get visas for 40 workers, nearly all of his peak-season labor.
"My wife and I and my managers have fairly strong feelings about operating within the law," he says. "I'm bitter about having the rug pulled out from under me."
"My payroll can run over $25,000 a week," he says. "You don't get a deal on the labor. What you do get is … guys who work all day long and don't complain about the heavy, monotonous work."
Circus Chimera canceled its season this year. James Judkins, owner of the no-animal circus, which performs mostly in the Southwest and West, had to lay off local, year-round employees because he couldn't get 50 visas for workers who perform, put up tents and do other jobs. They were 90% of his staff.
Canceling his season will hurt other businesses, too, he says. "I'm not going to be buying circus posters from the printing company," he says. "I'm not going to be buying advertising in the newspaper."
Monday, January 28, 2008
Elgin Announces a Crackdown
From the Chicago Tribune – 1/22/08
In response to complaints that Elgin was not doing enough to combat illegal immigration, the city unveiled a crackdown Tuesday that calls for developing closer ties with federal law enforcement agencies, screening applicants for city jobs to make sure they have valid Social Security numbers and doing random checks to make sure city contractors do not hire illegal workers. "Our focus is the safety and security of the people in Elgin," said Susan Olafson, a city spokeswoman.
Beginning March 1, Elgin officials also will begin questioning inmates in the city's jail about their legal status. The questioning would include inmates charged with felonies involving gang offenses, drugs, sex crimes and domestic abuse, officials said.
Verifying a city job applicant's Social Security number has begun, they said.The city of 105,000 residents—a third of whom are Latino—also has applied to participate in a U.S. Immigration and Custom's Enforcement initiative that would authorize police to work with federal agents on immigration enforcement actions, Olafson said.David White, co-chairman of the Elgin-based Association for Legal Americans, said he welcomed the city's efforts.
"This is giving our community hope," said White, who in recent months has been critical of the city's efforts on illegal immigration. "We want to thank the City Council for taking some action."
But the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said Elgin's efforts should be watched closely for possible violations of federal civil rights laws. Coalition officials also said questions have been raised about the validity of E-Verify, a link to federal government databases of Social Security numbers that Elgin plans to use in checking job applicants. "E-Verify has already been shown to be flawed, and this could end up with people being fired who are perfectly legal," said Fred Tsao, the group's policy director.
rquintanilla@tribune.com
In response to complaints that Elgin was not doing enough to combat illegal immigration, the city unveiled a crackdown Tuesday that calls for developing closer ties with federal law enforcement agencies, screening applicants for city jobs to make sure they have valid Social Security numbers and doing random checks to make sure city contractors do not hire illegal workers. "Our focus is the safety and security of the people in Elgin," said Susan Olafson, a city spokeswoman.
Beginning March 1, Elgin officials also will begin questioning inmates in the city's jail about their legal status. The questioning would include inmates charged with felonies involving gang offenses, drugs, sex crimes and domestic abuse, officials said.
Verifying a city job applicant's Social Security number has begun, they said.The city of 105,000 residents—a third of whom are Latino—also has applied to participate in a U.S. Immigration and Custom's Enforcement initiative that would authorize police to work with federal agents on immigration enforcement actions, Olafson said.David White, co-chairman of the Elgin-based Association for Legal Americans, said he welcomed the city's efforts.
"This is giving our community hope," said White, who in recent months has been critical of the city's efforts on illegal immigration. "We want to thank the City Council for taking some action."
But the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said Elgin's efforts should be watched closely for possible violations of federal civil rights laws. Coalition officials also said questions have been raised about the validity of E-Verify, a link to federal government databases of Social Security numbers that Elgin plans to use in checking job applicants. "E-Verify has already been shown to be flawed, and this could end up with people being fired who are perfectly legal," said Fred Tsao, the group's policy director.
rquintanilla@tribune.com
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