The adverse wage effect rate imposed by the Department of Labor. plus transportation. housing. and other costs. make importation of harvest labor a very expensive proposition. but the producers of perishable crops must have competent labor in sufficient numbers at harvest time. The overwhelming majority of agricultural producers want to hire their labor legally. They dont want to be involved knowingly with illegal aliens. This is why the provision of the amendment deleting the transition period contained in the Judiciary Committee version of the bill would be damaging to the effort of growers to conform to new procedures in the bill designed to tighten. over time. protections against even inadvertent hiring of illegals. Of even greater concern to agricultural producers is the apparent deletion. in the gentlemans amendment. of the role of the Department of Agriculture in advising the Attorney General as to the justification of H2 actions in specific labor shortage situations. and the apparent continuation of the present system in which the Department of Labor is the key. and. de facto. the controlling agency in H2 application determinations.
Keywords matched
illegal aliens