H-2A Changes Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. New rules and added expenses to the H-2A foreign guestworker program are the government’s most recent way of battling the fentanyl crisis.
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse recently questioned Homeland Security Chief Alejandro Mayorkas about the added fees and other changes …
NEWHOUSE … “Additionally, instead of just filling one form for all of their workers, the final rule caps the number of employees that can be listed on each form at 25 workers. There’s no added benefit that I can for this policy and it only increases paperwork burdens and costs to agricultural employers.”
All, Newhouse says more than anticipated …
NEWHOUSE … “So, now that the rule has gone into effect as of last week, we have some actual costs associated with this rule and they far exceed the predicted 26% increase that was anticipated.”
To which Mayorkas replied …
MAYORKAS … “I am very sensitive to the fact that additional costs were imposed on applicants, and I understand the burden that that poses, but U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was really with its back against the wall having been driven almost to bankruptcy by the prior administration.”
Which Mayorkas argues had to be fixed …
MAYORKAS … “And so, we had to make some very difficult decisions with respect to how to bring the agency to a point of financial stability. It had been suffering financial instability for too long.”
Newhouse argues it all comes down to pricing our growers out of the business and our nation’s food security.
