Analyst's note: The flow of illegal aliens into the U.S. must be stopped ... including the "slave-like" conditions that often accompany it. Don't miss the "related articles" listed below.
Georgia's mandatory E-Verify law is driving farmers to use the H-2A guestworker program, which has no ceiling and which was created specifically for the needs of agriculture. Growers, however, often eschew the H-2A program in favor hiring illegal aliens which is always more convenient than filling out federal forms and reporting back to the federal government. Now that Georgia's law makes it harder to get away with illegal hiring, farmers are looking for legal workers. According to WXIA-TV / 11 Alive in Atlanta, some aren't happy about it.
11 Alive spoke with R.T. Stanley, an onion farmer, who will reluctantly use the H-2A program next year for some of his workers. Stanley says he and other farmers are "just forced into it because they can't get enough labor otherwise." But that's exactly what E-Verify is supposed to do: force employers to hire legal workers.
Stanley went on to complain that the H-2A program would add 25 percent to his labor costs. I believe him when he says the H-2A program is more cumbersome and expensive than hiring illegal workers. Cheating is usually easier and cheaper than playing by the rules.
I blogged about Stanley a few months ago when he told National Public Radio that American workers were walking out on jobs that paid up to $200 per day. The claim sounded dubious, but NPR didn't speak with the workers to confirm their wages. I suspect we'll never know what the American workers were actually paid. In Georgia, employers who use H-2A workers must pay all of their workers a minimum of $9.12 per hour, while those that avoid the H-2A program only have to pay $7.25.
At the higher rate of $9.12, a worker on Stanley's farm would have to work more than 21 hours in a day to make $200.
Employers who use H-2A workers must meet minimum standards. Workers are frequently housed in barrack-style structures with beds that must be at least 3 feet apart and 12 inches off the floor, showers, toilets and safe drinking water. Concrete floors and cinder block walls satisfy the minimum requirements according to a Medill News Service story, A tale of two workers: H-2A farm labor vs. undocumented. As Medill reports, illegal workers live and work in worse conditions.
The wages and working conditions required by the H-2A visa program may seem nominal to many, but getting employers to meet even these minimal standards is one more step in the right direction for Americans who want less illegal immigration.
JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA
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Related articles:
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30 Catholic Bishops Say Illegal Aliens Should Be Thanked
ABC's Error Points to Media's Failure to Grasp 'Attrition'
200 Illegal-Alien Workers Losing Their Jobs at Pacific Steel
States Looking for New Ways to Combat Illegal Immigration in 2012
