"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.