Email this page

AFSC PUBLIC COMMENT SUBMITTED ON CHANGES TO REQUIREMENT AFFECTING H-2A NONIMMIGRANTS

Regulatory Information
Number (RIN) 1205–AB55

Submitted By

AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
PROJECT VOICE NETWORK

April 14, 2008

Contact Persons:

Esther Nieves
Director of Immigrant and Refugee Rights
AFSC - Community Relations Unit

1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 241-7131
enieves@afsc.org

Sara Ibrahim
Public Policy Impact Coordinator
AFSC- Washington, DC
1822 R. Street NW
Washington, DC 20009

202-483-6839
sibrahim@afsc.org

Repairing the Nation’s Agricultural Industry:
Quick Fixes Won’t Do

For more than four decades, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has supported labor rights education, work training and assistance to workers in the nation’s agricultural and forestry industries.  AFSC has partnered with organizations, unions, and individuals committed to the labor rights of workers, and in particular, those historically identified as “guestworkers” or “seasonal workers.” This work has been expansive and currently includes the states of California, Florida, North Carolina and Oregon.  

According to various sources -- including Labor Department data -- an estimated 53% of crop workers are undocumented.  Our decades of direct work and humanitarian support to agricultural seasonal workers has been  done in partnership with workers, their family members, faith organizations and advocates who are keenly aware of the health, housing and basic human conditions under which workers and their families live. 

The Bush Administration’s recent announcement of changes to the existing H-2A program for seasonal and agricultural workers places in peril the economic survival, labor and human rights of those it purportedly expects to help.   While encouraging the hiring of seasonal foreign workers, the administration has again ignored the current reality of undocumented workers who are in the United States, and already work as seasonal agricultural workers.  They too must be part of inclusive and transparent national immigration reform process. 

These administrative changes or ‘streamlined’ rules are not the substantive reforms needed to ensure that the agricultural industry is a fair and evenhanded employer when hiring temporary or seasonal workers.   While these are the first extensive changes to the H-2A program in the past two decades, AFSC believes that there are still significant labor rights gaps that must be addressed and which continue to place workers in a precarious and vulnerable position.

The program’s reform must include elements which guarantee the protection of every worker – immigrant and non-immigrant - and the overhauling a system which currently falls short of monitoring abusive worksite conditions, labor violations and full compliance with Department of Labor wages, health and safety standards.  The administration’s proposed changes include:

• Reduced oversight and monitoring of the H-2A agricultural program;
• Ties workers to the local labor market conditions, thus limiting worker mobility and the increasing chance for employer abuse;
• Removal of standards that  govern wage rate and housing requirements; and,
• Required compliance with an exit pilot program without plans to inform H2-A visa holders

The Department is also pledging to streamline systems including cutting down on paperwork and the eventual transition to the internet in addition to increasing employer fines for program violations.  While some of these technical operating measures may help expedite the current bureaucratic logjam, they do nothing to ensure that workers are protected or treated in compliance with national labor standards.   Easing labor standards for employers does little, if anything to ensure that seasonal workers are treated fairly and in compliance with the nation’s labor laws.  Instead of easing labor standards, the administration needs to be creating stable, fair and safe labor conditions for every worker as this propels our nation towards a 21st century workforce that can meet the demands of en ever-changing global economy.

Will worker rights perish in the nation’s fields?

While workers toil in the nation’s most productive agricultural fields (and in other industries including seafood processing, landscaping, and construction), none of these workers has the prospect of adjusting their immigration status in the United States since all are viewed as seasonal workers and human commodities.   Sidestepping this current economic reality and opting to altogether ignore this workforce is neither humane nor practical.   The current proposal to revamp the H-2A visa agricultural program lacks meaningful change and further erodes the already precarious rights of this workforce. Shortcuts and short-term policy solutions will not solve the current need to address an out of order system with extensive waiting lists, bureaucratic barriers, and outdated policies. 

We need practical immigration policies for seasonal workers as part of a complete package of reform for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who are already here.  Through their daily toil and often tiring field work, these workers have contributed to the nation’s prosperity and indeed, added their sweat and toil to make the nation’s agricultural industry one of its economic assets.

Recommendations: 
Moving forward with a Recommitment to the Nation’s Workforce

• Given the Department of Labor’s proposal to revamp the H2-A visa program while also doing away with the few labor protections that the program now has, AFSC presents the following policy recommendations for implementation:

1. Any overhaul of the H-2A program must maintain and expand legal, labor and worksite safeguards.
   • We oppose the proposal to change the wage methodology in a manner that will lower wage rates significantly and lead to more evasions of the newly-lowered wage requirements.
   • The Department invited comments regarding the transportation cost reimbursements and payments: we believe those should be retained.
   • The Department invited comments regarding recruitment issues, and we support continuation of the 50% rule requiring employers to hire qualified farmworkers who apply before the first half of the season has elapsed.
2. Congressional oversight and leadership should be part of the Administration’s consultative process and it should present its proposed changes to the H-2A visa program to the appropriate Congressional leaders and committees charged with safeguarding worker rights and labor protections.
3. Changes to the H-2A visa program must be part of a comprehensive and systematic process which enables seasonal workers to adjust their immigration status.  Many of these workers have lived in the United States and through their wages contributed to the nation’s agricultural and economic success.
4. The Department of Labor should conduct national hearings and invite public testimony on the existing housing conditions, health and safety standards and labor issues that impact laborers and their work relationship with their employers.   This can then be used to provide a more meaningful and substantive vantage point from which to make appropriate changes to the H-2A visa program.
5. The Department of Labor should also consult with advocates who have field experience and first-hand knowledge of the challenges and barriers that workers face while also identifying opportunities that equitably benefit workers and employers alike.

•  Finally the DOL should include the testimonies of H2-A guest workers in national hearings.

Conclusion

The American Friends Service Committee will continue to monitor the proposed changes to the H-2A program and work with faith and other organizations including community organizations and unions to ensure that the rights of the nation’s workers are protected.  We will remain attentive and continue to speak in support of policy proposals and humane measures, which strengthen the rights of all workers and remain true to the nation’s founding principles of due process and justice.

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

The American Friends Service Committee supports the rights and dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status. Project Voice, the AFSC immigrants’ rights initiative, works to uplift migrant voices and strengthen efforts of migrant-led organizations to set an agenda for fair and humane national public policies. AFSC has 90 years experience working with immigrants and refugees and presently works with immigrants in 18 communities in fourteen states and in 22 countries around the world.

Department of Labor, The National Agricultural Workers Survey: Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 2001 – 2002, A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farm Workers

^ Top of page