Farms are a business. That means they hire their employees with the same rigor, background checks and proper protocols as any reputable business would. They do not hire indiscriminately, no matter how dire the labor shortage may be. They follow labor laws, regardless of the ethnicity of the people they are hiring.
No farmer – NO FARMER – wants to hire anyone with a record of serious criminal offenses. In the case of a recent Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raid on a farm in upstate New York, the main target of the raid was a person allegedly involved in child pornography. This person came to the United States legally through the H-2A visa program. He was vetted by the consulate of South Africa and approved by the U.S. government. Therefore, there was no reason for any suspicion or concern. But we can all agree that this person, if the allegations are true, should be tried, convicted, serve a sentence and be deported.
Farmers want to hire high-quality workers who bring a measurable value to the business and to their community, and they support those high-quality workers with competitive wages and decent housing. Often, farm workers become like family to the farmers who hire them.
It’s important to note that migrant guestworker programs are very common. Canada has one with lower wage rates than the United States. Regardless, guest worker programs have allowed growth in GDP in many poverty-stricken areas of developing nations. These programs help not only the families of those coming here, but also the community, farms, and the food system they support in the United States.
Situations like immigration raids underscore the dire need for immigration reform in the United States. Farmers are just one of many groups that have been asking for a better guest worker program in this country for about 40 years. The H-2A visa program issues temporary visas to farm workers, and the recipient of such a visa can spend no more than 10 months in the U.S. on a farm. As such, most livestock operations, including dairy, poultry and hogs, are not eligible for the H-2A program because caring for livestock is a year-round job. By instituting a year-round H-2A work visa, or long-term guest worker program, the federal government can attract skilled workers who can fill much-needed positions on farms across the country.
New York Farm Bureau
