Document Details

2010-09-14

Debra J. Groom

Syracuse Online

Lysander, NY -- Before a single strawberry, squash, tomato or eggplant was picked, Lysander farmer Tony Emmi spent thousands of dollars and many hours filing paperwork to get good help. To make sure the migrants who work his farm are legal, he participates in the federal government’s H-2A program. It screens potential migrant workers, determines how long they can stay and specifies where they can work. The federal government this year changed parts of the program to further ensure the workers didn’t take jobs from U.S. citizens. The changes streamline the program, making it easier for farmers, federal officials said. Streamlined? Making it easier? That couldn’t be further from what happened, many farmers say. The changes have made the program more cumbersome and expensive, they said. Peter Gregg, speaking for New York Farm Bureau, said there’s more paper work and it is more time-consuming. “The government has made it worse by an added level of bureaucracy and red tape,” he said. The program now requires farmers such as Emmi spend hours filling out nearly 10 forms and applications (four forms are new this year). Some of the changes are redundant. Emmi filled out paper work to have his worker housing inspected by the state after he’d already had it inspected by the county. In the past, a copy of the county inspection report was enough. Emmi has participated in the program for three years and is wondering if he should continue. He said the program always was burdensome, but this year’s changes caused him more difficulties. One problem may be the H-2A program is run by the U.S. Department of Labor and two other federal agencies: Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department, which also leads to some confusion. Emmi isn’t the only local farmer bothered by the more demanding H-2A program.
One farmer’s pre-harvest costs
Before he paid his migrant workers the $9 per hour for picking produce this season, Lysander farmer Tony Emmi had to pay thousands of dollars to secure the workers. Some of those costs:
Application: About $320
Advertising: $2,500
Interviews: $8,300
Preparing housing: $5,000 to $6,000
Transportation: About $5,000
Jack Torrice, of Oswego, said he “lost a lot of cherries” (he figures about a ton of cherries at a retail cost of $5,000) this year because of what he says is nitpicking on his H-2A application. His application was rejected and he had to “redo things that are miniscule.” So one of his four workers didn’t get to Oswego in time to pick cherries.

“It was definitely a lot harder this year. It took an extra month to get all the paper work done,” he said. Torrice and his wife, Martha, have 75 acres of fruit trees bearing apples, apricots, cherries, pears and peaches on their Fruit Valley Orchards and Greenhouses.

Emmi also said his application was rejected and sent back to him because of a typo.

Torrice and Emmi wonder why the government has made the program so difficult, considering it helps farmers produce food and ensures workers are here legally and not taking positions from U.S. workers.

Gregg said the government stating it is “streamlining” the program is “mind-boggling.”

“I’ve been in the program for 25 years. I look at it as an insurance policy,” Torrice said. “But the government keeps putting up roadblocks. It’s very expensive and the paper work is redundant. Every year it’s a little worse. It’s ridiculous.”

Andy Reeves, another Lysander vegetable and fruit farmer, works with many Central New York farmers to help find and line up interviews for H-2A workers in Mexico. He said the program is time consuming, but if farmers get rolling on the paperwork early, it’s not too bad.

“You can’t speed up the program,” Reeves said. “You have to make your commitment to the program early, be sure you know what you want and don’t rush through it.”

Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard
Migrant farm worker Pablo Hernandez of Mexico picks tomatoes for Emmi Farms in Lysander.
How it works

¦Before participating in the program, farmers must advertise in three states to prove no U.S. residents will take the jobs.

Emmi got two calls from the ads he ran. One was a man from Wisconsin who ended up not taking the job and one was from a woman from Pennsylvania who “worked weekends for a while,” Emmi said.

The farmers also must fill out forms to prove hiring these migrant workers won’t affect wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.

Once certified, farmers file a form requesting the workers. Once this form is approved, the screening process begins in U.S. consulates and embassies in countries where the workers live.

That process is stringent. A worker could have a pristine record, but if one of his relatives tried to enter the United States illegally, the worker could be denied.

Once the workers are screened and arrive, farmers have other costs, such as payroll and housing. Emmi’s workers are paid about $9 an hour (it is going up to about $10.16 next year), and sometimes more for picking more bushels of particular crops. Emmi provides housing in two houses and eight mobile homes.

Emmi could consider hiring workers without using the program. That would be cheaper and less of a hassle. But then he could be raided, as he was in 1997 and 2007. Those who weren’t legal (most of his 40 or so man crew) were sent back to Mexico.

The benefit of a farmer using the H-2A program is even if a farm is raided, all the workers are legal.

Emmi is considering changing to crops not dependent on migrant workers at harvest time. “I might have to rent some (of my land) land or go into row crops, things like soybeans, field corn and processing beans,” he said. Those can be harvested by machine.

The solution, according to Emmi and Gregg, is permanent immigration reform that includes provisions for migrant workers. Emmi said migrant workers are a special situation because these people aren’t looking to stay here. They are not eligible for any U.S. social services while they are here.

“They come here, work and take the money back,” Emmi said. "There has to be immigration reform and a provision that provides for labor for our farms. Until that happens, we’ll just try to hang on.”

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  Central New York farmers find federal program makes it harder to bring in migrant workers (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/central_new_york_farmers_find.html)
  

Agriculture and horticulture workers

Policy analysis

Policymakers and Public awareness

United States

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