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.
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sfranklin@tribune.com
Page compiled from Tribune staff, wire reports
