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OCR Page 1 of 26DRAFT
REV. DRAFT -- REV. DRAFT -- REV. DRAFT
Ideas for Possible Temporary Nonimmigrant Agricultural (H-2A)
Guestworker Program Reform
July 30, 1998
felizia
Recognizing that the step to legislation is a BIG one
Pilot test new Registry of available U.S. farm workers.
The Smith-Wyden-Graham bill would shift responsibility for recruitment of U.S.
farmworkers from growers seeking access to foreign guestworkers to the Department of
Labor (intended to be financed by user fees from participating growers). Growers
would have no obligation to recruit U.S. farmworkers beyond asking DOL to find the
workers they need, and no obligation to hire any U.S. farmworkers except those
delivered by DOL's Registry after confirming the workers are legally authorized to
work in the U.S.. For several reasons, the Registry established by the bill can not
function effectively.
Nonetheless, though it would be very expensive and complex, the idea of such a
Registry - built on the infrastructure of America's Job Bank and America's Talent
Bank, and the existing agricultural recruitment system operated by the U.S.
Employment Sevice - should be tested for feasibility and effectiveness, though it
should not be the sole mechanism for recruiting U.S. workers (see below). Growers,
government, and NGOs would be responsible for recruiting workers to Register, and
prospective H-2A employers would be required to use the Registry as one (of several)
means of obtaining legal U.S. workers.
User fees finance program operations.
A user fee imposed on employers participating in the program would (1) provide an
incentive to find and use U.S. farmworkers, and (2) finance the new costs of the
Registry pilot, the travel advance fund, a housing construction fund, and the entry-exit
system.
Growers share responsibility for recruiting legal U.S. farmworkers.
In addition to using the Registry, growers using the H-2A program would have to make
bona fide efforts to recruit and hire U.S. farmworkers including reemploying
former/current legal workers, direct recruiting in labor supply areas, and creating
partnerships with NGOs and worker organizations.
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