"The H-2A visa is the only legal means for U.S. farmers to employ foreign workers ("H-2A Guest Workers Can Pick Florida's Crops" by Dave Seminara, Cross Country, Aug. 5). Apple growers are perhaps the largest single user of the H-2A visa program, despite its being hopelessly bureaucratic and illogical.
For example, to use the H-2A program, a grower must tell federal agencies in the winter how many workers will be needed on what date for the next fall's harvest. Only Mother Nature -- neither kind nor predictable -- knows when the apples will be ready to harvest and how large the crop will be.
Hourly farmworker wages averaged $16.62 in 2022. The cost to hire, transport and house an H-2A worker (usually from Mexico or Jamaica) exceeds $2,000 a worker, so a small-to-medium-size family farmer will spend a quarter of a million dollars on labor before the first apple, tomato or head of lettuce gets picked.
The lack of a good temporary farmworker visa program is a big reason the U.S. will import more food than it exports, in value, this year.
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act is part of the solution. For the many falsely documented workers picking the nation's fruits and vegetables, it would allow them to pay a significant fine and come out of the shadows to achieve legal work status (but not citizenship). It has passed the House twice, with bipartisan support, but the Senate has refused to consider it.
Jim Bair
President and CEO, U.S. Apple Association
Falls Church, Va." [1]
1. U.S. Farmers Need a Better Work Visa Program. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 12 Aug 2023: A.12.
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