Dan Fazio says his phone is "ringing off the hook" these days.
He's executive director of WAFLA, an organization that helps fruit growers in Washington state find workers — and specifically, foreign workers who are allowed to enter the U.S. specifically as seasonal workers on farms.
WAFLA takes care of the bureaucratic details. It applies for permission from the Department of Labor to bring in workers for specific jobs. It certifies that it has looked for U.S. citizens to do these jobs and can't find them. Then it locates people in places like Mexico, or Central America. These "guest workers" get a special visa, called an H-2A visa, that lets them stay in the country temporarily, usually for no more than 10 months. WAFLA brings them by bus to the fields and orchards of Washington.
"This year, we'll get labor certifications for over 10,000 workers," Fazio says.
Interest in WAFLA's services is surging for two different reasons. There's a shortage of farm workers across the country. But more recently, it's also been driven by fear of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
"We haven't seen any raids, but we have seen the paranoia," says Fazio. "A government vehicle drives by a farm, and all the farm workers run away."
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I'm told there are 11 million of them living here now. If they don't work, deport them!
ReplyDeleteMaybe some lazy americans will go pick fruit and make america great.
ReplyDeleteAsk a SNOWFLAKE.
ReplyDeleteIf they all have their H1-2b cards or whatever, why would they run? Oh, that's right, they don't have any! That makes them here ILLEGALLY, which YOU should be punished for even hiring them in the first place!
ReplyDeleteYou deserve to have your farm FAIL miserably.
Look, these Farmers have been Breaking the Law by hiring Illegal Aliens for many many years. They should all Go Broke as part of their punishment and let some new people step in and run those farms the Right Way: with legal workers only. Accepting this kind of Liberal crap as necessary is why this country is in the mess it is in right now. Deport the illegals!
ReplyDeleteI don't see a big difference between this and the Civil War. Farms depend on cheap labor. The North took slaves away from the South so the farmers look for other "illegal" cheap labor.
ReplyDeleteWatch prices of fruit n produce start going up as costs related to labor increase.
ReplyDelete