A recent Associated Press story (“Shortage of apple pickers in state growing dire, says Gregoire”) laments a labor shortage to harvest the state’s apples. Unfortunately, the lack of immigration-authorized workers to harvest Washington’s fruits and vegetables is likely to continue until the federal government enacts an immigration reform policy that works for agriculture.
Since between 50 and 70 percent of our nation’s farmworkers are undocumented, any immigration reform package must include protections to make sure apples in Washington — and other fruits and vegetables across the United States — don’t go to waste with no workers to tend the harvest.
While the president of the Okanogan County Farm Bureau quoted in the story complains about the procedures in the federal H-2A agricultural guest worker program, many Washingtonian farmers have apparently found the program helpful. Last year alone, Washington growers applied for assistance from more than 3,000 guest workers, making Washington the eighth biggest user of the program in the nation.
But, the growers are right that Congress should avoid implementing a sweeping enforcement-only policy of verifying Social Security numbers on all newly hired employees through E-Verify. Instead, Congress should consider Rep. Howard Berman’s (D-Calif.) Agricultural Labor Market Reform Act of 2011, which would enable current undocumented farmworkers in the U.S. who meet stringent requirements to earn legal work papers. It would also reform the existing H-2A program to prevent employers from displacing hundreds of thousands of authorized U.S. workers by hiring more exploitable guest workers.
Bruce Goldstein
President, Farmworker Justice
Washington, D.C.
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