WASHINGTON -- Georgia farm advocates on Wednesday lauded a new proposal in Congress to retool a federal guest-worker program often criticized as cumbersome.
U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Savannah, introduced the bill, joined by U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County, to make the H-2A program more farmer-friendly by reducing several barriers to bringing in migrant workers. The bill also would decrease guest workers' wages and make it tougher to file suit against farmers, which an attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program said would hurt farmworkers regardless of citizenship.
Kingston, in a statement, said the bill "implements common-sense reforms and abolishes well-intentioned but practically unworkable regulations."
The H-2A program brings in migrant workers on a temporary basis to fill jobs that farmers show cannot be filled by local citizens. Farmers still would be required to advertise the available jobs locally, but they would be allowed to require experienced farmworkers. They also would no longer be required to hire any local worker during the contract period, even after the migrants show up.
"That is just a bureaucratic nightmare," said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, who consulted with the bill's authors.
The Better Agriculture Resources Now Act also would reduce the maximum application wait time to 30 days from 45 and expand the program to the dairy and ranching industries. It would reduce the burden on farmers to provide housing for the workers, as they could offer the workers vouchers for nearby housing instead of building housing on-site. Housing oversight would be transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers often complain that Americans will not perform the strenuous seasonal labor they need, and tensions increased this year when Georgia passed a law mandating many employers use the E-Verify system to make sure their workers are not illegal immigrants, as farmers warned it would scare off migrant workers. The farm industry released a report last month documenting $74.9 million in losses in seven crops this year due to labor shortages. At $68.8 billion, agriculture remains Georgia's largest industry.
In an interview, Westmoreland said the bill is intended to help the labor shortage by making it easier to get legal immigrants into the fields.
"What [the Legislature was] dealing with is illegal immigration," he said, "and what we’re trying to deal with is legal workers being able to come here and fill the positions that, domestically, people don’t want to do."
The author of Georgia's new immigration law, state Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, said in an email that he was pleased with Westmoreland and Kingston's effort.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, a Republican who has pushed for a strong guest-worker program, also expressed his approval. In a statement, Black said the "responsible, forward-thinking proposal will go a long way toward improving our national security interests and our agricultural economy."
Dawson Morgan, a senior staff attorney for the Georgia Legal Services Program's migrant project, was less enthralled. He pointed out that the bill sets a cap of 115 percent of the local minimum wage to pay H-2A workers, as opposed to an average of the prevailing farmworker wage under current law. In Georgia that would reduce workers' wages from $9.12 an hour to $8.34, which Morgan said would undercut domestic workers' earnings as well.
The BARN Act also would impose new restrictions on legal services, allowing attorneys on farms only by appointment and requiring mediation before a suit can be filed. Westmoreland said these restrictions are necessary because lawyers seek out migrants to file frivolous lawsuits at taxpayer expense.
Morgan disagreed.
"It makes it harder for workers to learn of counsel, learn of their rights and then assert their rights in court," he said. "And I think, obviously, denying people access to justice is un-American and reprehensible."
Staff writer Jeremy Redmon contributed to this article.
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