A provision to provide dairy farmers with increased access to foreign-born workers has been included in a bill to fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in fiscal year (FY) 2018. The amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Washington), expands the federal H-2A farm worker visa program to include year-round employees on dairy farms.
Currently, the H-2A program may only be used to hire temporary or seasonal workers.
The amendment was adopted by the House Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support on July 18.
The appropriations process involves multiple steps. Both House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working on FY 2018 spending packages for 12 federal agencies, which must then be reconciled to come up with a federal budget.
Members of the House and Senate are scheduled to leave Washington, D.C. at the end of July for an August recess/home work period, returning after Labor Day. FY 2018 begins on Oct. 1, 2017.
NMPF: H-2A part of larger effort
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), a longtime proponent of expanding the H-2A program, worked with Newhouse and House Appropriations Committee leaders to advance the proposal.
“Expanding the scope of the H-2A farm worker visa program is part of the continuing effort of NMPF and its members to find solutions to the labor challenges facing America’s dairy industry,” said NMPF president and chief executive officer Jim Mulhern. “Dairy farmers have cows that need to be milked twice a day, every single day, yet they largely have not been able to utilize the H-2A visa program because of how the U.S. Department of Labor interprets the existing program, which restricts the visas only to the temporary and seasonal labor needs of agricultural employers,” he said.
NMPF’s Immigration Task Force, which represents NMPF member co-ops and state dairy associations across the country, has been working on these issues for years. Task force chairman and dairy farmer Mike McCloskey, Fair Oaks, Indiana, said the H-2A changes are an important first step to address the labor challenges facing U.S. dairy farmers.
“This will make the H-2A program much more attractive and valuable to America’s dairy farmers,” he said.
Migrant labor group opposed
Farmworker Justice, a nonprofit migrant worker advocacy organization, opposed the amendment, criticizing both the amendment and its inclusion in a spending bill.
“Expanding the H-2A program to year-round jobs would contravene the purpose of the program and further distort the agricultural labor market,” said Bruce Goldstein, the organization’s president. He charged the H-2A expansion would open more foreign workers to substandard labor conditions, while displacing current undocumented workers and exposing them to deportation.
“Agricultural employers with year-round jobs should do what any other employer must do to attract and retain workers: improve wages and working conditions,” he said.
Testifying during a House Judiciary immigration subcommittee hearing, July 19, Goldstein endorsed the Agricultural Worker Program Act, a bill introduced in May by U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris (both D-California), Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). That bill gives farm workers “blue card” status. Farmworkers who maintain blue card status for three or five years, depending on the total hours worked in agriculture, would be eligible to adjust to a green card or legal permanent residency.
Dairy’s needs recognized
While the Newhouse measure has drawn criticism from some farm union organizations, NMPF believes creating an additional legal pathway for workers to connect with farm employers deserves bipartisan support.
“This measure simply broadens an existing program for farm workers to recognize the unique needs of dairying,” Mulhern said. “It is critical to the vitality of the U.S. dairy industry and the fate of thousands of farm workers that our government creates and supervises a system that provides secure, legal employment. We hope the merits of this approach will surmount any opposition,” he said.
Beyond the efforts to improve the H-2A program, Mulhern said he is optimistic NMPF’s work with the House Judiciary Committee will soon result in an agricultural visa program bill.
“We still need broader legislation that addresses the limited labor supply available to America’s farm employers,” Mulhern said. “It’s in the best interest of all parties to acknowledge the deficiencies of the current system, where many of our farm workers are not legally documented, and where many employers don’t have access to a viable guest worker program.”
In addition to working with leaders of the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees, NMPF’s immigration efforts have involved outreach to Trump Administration officials in a comprehensive effort to address the workforce needs of farm employers.
New visa program sought
“Our cows need to be cared for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said Laurie Fischer, chief executive officer of the American Dairy Coalition (ADC), a dairy policy lobbying organization. While she praised bipartisan efforts to move the H-2A amendment forward, Fischer said the potential for a new visa program holds promise.
Created through the Agricultural Guestworker Act, planned to be introduced later this summer by Rep. Goodlatte (R-Virginia), would “replace the inefficient and troublesome H2-A program” with a new guest worker visa – the H-2C, Fischer wrote in a blog posted on the Progressive Dairyman website.
Read: Answer to 20-year labor shortage problem may be around the corner
That proposal would allow a “registered agricultural employer” to offer up to 36-month visas to both existing and incoming laborers. Current undocumented workers will be encouraged to identify themselves to participate in this program. 
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