Imagine living in Mexico, working for less than five dollars an hour, barely being able to afford food. Living so close to the United States, always thinking of the American dream, and wanting to achieve it. For a farmworker in Mexico, this dream could become reality - but for a cost, and only temporarily.

 

The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers visa program was created in 1986, with the passing of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The program is meant to bring agricultural workers from different countries to the United States in order to participate in farm work to supply labor to the agricultural industry. As of January 18, 2017, citizens from 85 countries qualify for this status.

 

“Farm owners can qualify to bring H-2A workers if the job is temporary or seasonal, can demonstrate there aren’t enough workers in the U.S. who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary position, and can show that employing H-2A workers won’t affect the wages and working conditions of similar employed U.S. workers”, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

 

Once farm owners qualify to bring in temporary agricultural workers, they can begin the document process. Three steps are involved to make the process happen:

1. Petitioner submits temporary labor certification application to the Department of Labor

2.  Petitioner submits Form I-129 to USCIS,

3.  Prospective workers outside the United States apply for visa and/or admission.

 

The process is costly, but worth it according to Sonny Scott, field prep manager at Long and Scott Farms in Mount Dora, Florida..

 

 “It’s contracted help that we bring in but it’s all through the government so you have to pay to get them here, you have to pay to house them, and feed them, feed the folks and make sure they have a job from certain dates to certain dates it’s like contracts,” Scott said. “But they’re all well taken care of and they’re bussed here and brought home and we make sure they have a place to stay and we make sure they’re taken care of while they’re here.”

 

Scott’s farm brings in seven crews each season, approximately 80 to 100 people, he said. The program isn’t all that glamorous though.

 

According to Greg Schell, the deputy director of Southern Migrant Legal Services, “Legal guest workers are scared in a different way. Our guest worker program allows workers to be admitted to work but only for a specific farm, but the farm gets to choose who comes back next year. So if you’re a troublemaker, you’re not on the list and I want to come back next year, because this is my one chance to come legally in the United States. I don’t have to risk my life in the desert, and at the end of the day I get to go home and see my family or I can sit starving in my home village in Mexico.”

 

Since H-2A workers want to be able to travel in and out of the U.S. legally, many are also willing to overlook abuses they face on farms, low pay, and say nothing if they are injured on the job.

 

“Guest workers in Florida in the citrus industry represent about 80 percent of the citrus workers and of that group almost all of them are short-changed on money, but very, very few will come forward and complain,” Schell says.

 

As a result of the workers not willing to speak up when they are being treated poorly on the farm, it becomes “a system that isn’t well regulated,” Schell said.

 

One of the benefits for farm owners in using the H-2A program to bring in workers, is the fact they can pick and choose the type of worker they receive, whether it is age or gender, and employers are choosing workers from some of the poorest countries in the world.

 

“We’re seeing employers now go to countries that are even more desperate than Mexico,” Schell says. “Honduras being an example, which is terribly poor, and people there are even more desperate and some of the people have paid thousands of dollars to recruiters.‘Choose me, and I’ll pay you several thousand dollars because I want to be one of those workers chosen.’”

 

Many go on to pay the recruiter thousands to come to the U.S., but there is no guarantee they’ll even be chosen at the end of the process, and even if they are, they’re told to not tell anyone they paid the recruiter to get here legally.

 

According to the USCIS website, workers who receive H-2A classification, are only allowed to stay for the “time authorized on the temporary labor certification.” However, an extension can be granted “in increments of up to a year each” and “the maximum period of stay in H-2A classification is 3 years.” Once a temporary agricultural worker has been in the U.S. for three years, they have to go back home and stay there for at least three months, before re-applying for H-2A status.

 

If an H-2A worker has a spouse and children under the age of 21, the family members can apply for an H-4 visa. This allows family members to come to the U.S. with the H-2A worker, but “family members are not eligible for employment in the United States while in H-4 status.” This might make it hard for the family, if the H-2A worker does not work many hours or are paid at a low rate.

 

In 2015, the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification recorded data in Florida, regarding the different visa programs. The report found that of the 204 applications processed in the state for H-2A workers, 192 were certified. Of the 18,740 positions requested, 17,942 were approved. In 2015, the average wage offer for H-2A workers was $10.19.

 

The report also found the top three cities in Florida for H-2A workers were Arcadia, Plant City, and Avon Park. All of which are near the Tampa area of Florida. The report also found the top five positions for H-2A workers in Florida were picking oranges, berries, citrus, melons, and grapefruits. There was no indication on the report, as to what the differences between oranges, citrus, and grapefruits are. Across the board for the three top cities for H-2A workers in Florida, and for the top five positions for these workers, the average wage was still $10.19.

 

Also in 2015, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s annual report determined “there was an increase of 18 percent in the number of positions requested for H-2A job opportunities and an increase of almost 9 percent in the number of H-2A temporary employment certification applications certified in FY 2015 over FY 2014.”

 

The annual report showed that Florida had the highest number of H-2A workers in 2015, with North Carolina and Georgia close behind. The top five crops picked by H-2A workers were tobacco, berries, apples, hay and straw, and oranges, according to the report. Of the top ten employers with the most H-2A certified workers, only one, R & R Harvesting, headquarters is located in Florida. As for the top ten cities in the U.S. for H-2A workers, three are located in Florida: Arcadia (2nd), Plant City (7th), and Winter Haven (10th).