H-2A
House Judiciary Committee OKs E-Verify, guestworker bills
On Oct. 25, the House Judiciary Committee approved by a vote of 17-16 a bill to create a new agricultural guestworker program for America’s farmers and ranchers. H.R. 4092, the Agricultural Guestworker Act (AG Act), authored... more »
Grower finishes 17 years of labor advocacy in capital
For the better part of two decades, tomato grower Fred Leitz has regularly left the family farm in Sodus, Michigan to advocate in the nation's capital for reform of agricultural labor laws. Leitz this spring... more »
H-2A struggles to keep up with grower demand
H-2A, the country’s agricultural guest-worker program, continues to grow. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the number of H-2A workers jumped from 77,246 to 165,741 between 2011 and 2016. Since 2001, there’s been... more »
Growers share pros and cons of H-2A program
Short on labor and thinking about hiring H-2A workers? The federal guest-worker program, which more farm employers are using these days, has its pros and cons. A couple of Michigan growers shared their experiences with... more »
States find ways to deal with labor shortages
It’s hard to know the exact number of seasonal specialty crop workers in the United States, but Frank Gasperini thinks 1.5 million is a good estimate. Seasonal worker shortages have been an issue in the... more »
Legislators introduce Family Farm Relief Act
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Congressman Chris Collins (R-NY) have introduced the Family Farm Relief Act of 2017, legislation to move the H-2A Agricultural Visa program from the Department of Labor to the Department of... more »
DOL updates minimum wage rates for H-2A workers
The Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor has announced the 2017 Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs) for the employment of temporary or seasonal nonimmigrant foreign workers (H-2A workers) to perform agricultural labor or... more »
H-2A wage rates for 2017 projected
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has released core data that will be used to calculate the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for 2017. The AEWR in Washington and Oregon will likely rise 5.44 percent... more »
Western Growers applauds USCIS streamlining of H-2A processing
While in Washington, D.C. for the Association’s Annual Board Fly-in, Western Growers President and CEO Tom Nassif has released a statement on the announcements made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S.... more »
NASDA, Farm Bureau call for quicker H-2A processing
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) joined forces with the American Farm Bureau Federation to call on the federal government to alleviate H-2A processing delays. The H-2A program is a critically important... more »
