The H-2A farmworker visa program might finally be headed for the overhaul it has needed for a long time.
The U.S. House of Representatives has an opportunity to take up the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA) currently being championed by House Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson.
Washington state is among the top users of the H-2A farmworker visa program nationwide, averaging between 30,000 and 35,000 H-2A visa approvals annually. Under the current program, farmworkers are limited to seasonal jobs lasting no more than 10 months and they must be foreign nationals coming from abroad to work.
The single-largest change offered in the SAWA is the allowance for undocumented workers already in the United States to seek visa protection through the H-2A program to work legally in the U.S. The bill would require undocumented workers seeking a visa to work to pass a background check and sit for an in-person interview before granting them a visa and would not provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Additionally, undocumented workers would have to be currently employed in agriculture to qualify for a visa.
This departure from previous H-2A program revisions is significant because it does not provide a citizenship opportunity for undocumented workers. What it does do, however, is provide an answer to local labor activists who have said a local, undocumented workforce is available. Undocumented workers pose a risk to employers because employers can incur hefty fines for knowingly hiring them and workers can be deported. By allowing undocumented workers to apply for a visa through the H-2A program, all the risk is removed for both parties.
There are more departures from previous programmatic update proposals, including extending the working season for H-2A visa holders to 350 days, allowing hiring of H-2A visa holders by dairies, other livestock-based operations, and codifying the new Adverse Effect Wage Rate methodology into law. Each of these updates is a shift toward stabilizing the H-2A farmworker visa program and ensuring that farmworkers are available in the U.S. nearly year-round.
The extension of the 350-day contract period from its current 10-month cap is particularly advantageous. Jobs must still be classified as “seasonal” in nature for H-2A workers to be eligible for hire, but they can be hired for a wider variety of tasks with a longer contract. With the inclusion of dairies and other livestock operations in particular, a 350-day contract, or approximately 11.5 months, agricultural employers can add H-2A visa holders to rotations in calving, weaning, shepherding, or other livestock-related tasks rather than relying solely on a local workforce that may not exist or be readily available.
The codification of the new Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology is also a step in the right direction for the H-2A program. Under the current rule, the AEWR has been adjusted to consider what local workers are required to pay for housing. That housing premium has been removed from the overall total earnings of H-2A visa holders because they do not pay for their housing costs while working in the U.S. In Washington state, the AEWR was adjusted down so far that H-2A visa holders are earning a base rate of pay equal to the state’s minimum wage this year.
For years the H-2A farmworker visa program has been a cumbersome but necessary tool to answer the needs of agricultural employers in Washington state, and across the U.S. The introduction of the SAWA would provide much-needed updates, clarifications, and changes to a system that has grown well beyond its original purpose. When good agricultural policy is proposed, the least that can be done is to support it with all our might.
