U.S. lets in more immigrants for farms: Visa regulations relaxed; farmworker shortage critical

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Los Angeles Times

By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 7, 2007

WASHINGTON -- With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country.

The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught in a vise between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of illegal planters, pickers and middle managers crossing the border....

The push to speedily rewrite the regulations is also the Bush administration's attempt to step into a breach left when Congress did not pass an immigration overhaul in June that might have helped American farms. Almost three-quarters of farmworkers are thought to be illegal immigrants.

On all sides of the farm industry, the administration's behind-the-scenes initiative to revamp H-2A farmworker visas is fraught with anxiety. Advocates for immigrants fear the changes will come at the expense of worker protections because the administration has received and is reportedly acting on extensive input from farm lobbyists. And farmers in areas such as the San Joaquin Valley, which is experiencing a 20% labor shortfall, worry the administration's changes will not happen soon enough for the 2008 growing season.

"It's like a ticking time bomb that's going to go off," said Luawanna Hallstrom, chief operating officer of Harry Singh & Sons, a third-generation family farm in Oceanside (California) that grows tomatoes. "I'm looking at my fellow farmers and saying, 'Oh my God, what's going on?'"...

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-farmworkers7oct07,0,7492249.story?coll=la-home-center

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. you reap what you sow...

no sympathy from me.

Did you know? - if you bump up the price of strawberries 10 cents per pint, you could pay your pickers $10 per hour and have no problem finding workers.

[hedgehog]

6. Yes, but will people pay an extra 10 cents a pint? nt

[cosmik debris]

2. There is NO SHORTAGE of workers

There is only a shortage of wages.

The "worker shortage" is the Republican frame. Please don't allow the Republican to frame the issue.

[bluedog]

3. hope the owners provide soap and water

for these new hires..........we have had way too many recalls on foods due to contamination..which probably caused by not having the proper sanitation set up.

[pinto]

4. If you're referring to the recent spinach/salad green recalls from the Salinas Valley,

the most likely culprit has been traced to neighboring livestock operations, *uphill* from the row crop land. Runoff was the vector, not migrant field workers.

[mitchtv]

5. My guess? Imperial Valley is next to go

Salton Sea drying, new Colo. River water limits that favor San Diego, intense ICE enforcement Wages are pretty good, but no workers. Thank God the real estate bust may slow down development.