Last-minute changes to farm worker program raise groups' ire

The Dallas Morning News ^ | 02 Jan 2009 | John Riley

[BGHater]

Farm worker advocates and opponents of illegal immigration are blasting one of President George W. Bush's "midnight regulations" that will make it easier for agricultural employers to hire foreign workers.

They say the changes undermine worker protections, exploit immigrants and set wage levels so low that domestic workers cannot compete with foreign workers for jobs.

The regulation,which makes changes in the U.S. Labor Department's H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program, allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers if not enough domestic workers are able or willing to fill farm jobs.

The changes also promise to reduce paperwork and make processing deadlines more efficient.

They are expected to take effect Jan. 17, three days before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Midnight regulations are rules pushed by the executive branch in the waning days of a lame-duck president's term. However, the incoming president is free to revise or revoke such last-minute changes.

In fiscal 2008,the U.S. State Department issued more than 64,000 H-2A visas,a 26 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.Since 2003,the number of temporary agricultural worker visas has steadily increased, according to a department spokeswoman.

But the number of workers covered by H-2A visas is only a small segment of a larger farm worker contingent that's close to 1.6 million, more than 80 percent of whom are foreign-born,said Craig Regelbrugge of the American Nursery and Landscape Association.Of those foreign-born workers,nearly three-quarters are unauthorized, he said.

The changes to the H-2A program revise the wages for temporary workers from the current standard to one based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Survey in order to make the H-2A program comparable with other guest-worker programs, a Labor Department memo said.

That means that wages will be set using a multiple-tier system based on local market rates.

[o_zarkman44]

In these tough times, these ARE jobs Americans will do. We don’t need any immigrunts stealing work from legitimately established Americans.

Let the hostilities begin.

[gieriscm]

In these tough times, these ARE jobs Americans will do.

You forget that a lot of welfare programs provide an incentive not to work for many folks.

[donna]

President Bush is a wannabe slave owner.

[elpadre]

guest worker programs that kick in after the labor Dept. certifies no American workers are available to work the fields is the best solution. The H-2 visas are short term visas requiring the recipients to return home when the job is complete. At least that is the way it used to be and I suspect is in this program.

The old bracero program had them going home after harvesting with their money, but the farm workers union was born and their first priority was to disable the program, according to my recollection.

[elpadre]

lets go one step further -

there are not enough American citizens or green card holders to fill the construction jobs for Obama’s resurrection of Roosevelt's WPA to build and repair Americas infrastructure. If they have the trillion dollars to spend, but not enough construction trades to do the work, how will it get done? You guessed right!! - from Mexico.