Foreign seasonal farm workers, including those in Wisconsin, are seeing the eligibility of their visas expanded – after lobbying by the dairy industry.
The Trump administration’s expansion of the H-2A visa is a step in the right direction, Wisconsin dairy farmers say. But the seasonal visa’s impact within a year-round sector remains uncertain.
In an industry where 80% to 85% of workers are undocumented, according to one business lobbyist, farmers want additional measures to provide foreign workers with a more permanent status than the visa’s three-year maximum.
“It’s certainly a short-term solution for that short-term window that farmers need extra help,” Darin Von Ruden, Wisconsin Farmers Union president, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“But for a long-term solution of the immigration issues, I don’t see this being really much more than a small Band-Aid on a gushing wound,” he said.
The new policy comes as dairy farmers continue to deal with labor shortages.
What does the change mean?
Before the June 17 change, the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t recognize dairy farm workers as eligible for the H-2A visa.
“Previous practice has been that a dairy farm’s application would be immediately denied because it had previously been established that there is no seasonal component to dairy work, because cows need to be milked every day, and animal care is a year-round process,” said James O’Neil, director of legislative affairs at the American Business Immigration Coalition.
But dairy farm employers can now follow the H-2A visa process to have their applications reviewed.
Also, they can employ workers through the program if the government says their needs meet the visa’s temporary or seasonal nature.
This kind of work at dairy farms could include cases where herdsmen milk cows for 10 months after childbirth and dry them off for two months before another childbirth, as well as cases where the employer’s need for labor is “substantially different between seasons even though some tasks, like milking, are consistent,” says a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo.
Petitions are determined on a case-by-case basis, and the employer “bears the burden of establishing the temporary or seasonal need,” the memo says.
Expansion impacts are unclear
While recognizing the dairy industry’s need for foreign labor, the visa expansion’s potential benefits are unclear, farmers say.
“There really wasn’t much in detail on how this was actually going to unfold,” said Ed Gorell, a Wisconsin Farmers Union district director.
It’s unclear how many dairy farmers are able to prove seasonality and actually receive workers through the H-2A visa, O’Neil said.
The subjective, case-by-case basis of the new rule could make it “very, very, very difficult” to get a H-2A visa approved, said Tony Gonzalez, director of the American Hispanic Association in Wausau.
Requirements for extensive paperwork from employers, and workers completing visa interviews in their home countries without guarantees of receiving visas, also make the H-2A process unattractive, Gonzalez said.
“It could provide some relief,” Gonzalez said. “But this is only a little, very little relief on a greater problem, really.”
Low trust in the government, compounded by ICE raids
Immigration reforms embody a new meaning at a time when raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have shaken up farms across the state.
While the national data is unclear, it’s widely believed that 80% to 85% of the nation’s dairy farm workforce is undocumented, O’Neil said.
“Certainly with all the ICE actions, especially over the last six months, there’s some farmers that are nervous about some of the practices that they’ve been doing,” Von Ruden said.
The H-2A visa expansion to dairy farms likely won’t lead to a surge of undocumented workers getting the visa, Gorell said.
“I think trust is going to be a big factor, so I don’t suspect they’re going to be volunteering to apply for these kind of new programs,” he said of undocumented workers.
“They will, however, be applying for after some trust is built up that they can trust the people who they would be applying with, I guess,” Gorell said. “Typically, farm workers are skeptical of government agencies and what they offer.”
Farmers demand longer-term solutions
Farmers and industry experts say more help is needed.
“I think this administrative shift demonstrates very clearly that the president understands how important immigrant labor is to the agriculture sector,” O’Neil said. “Our hope is that this trend of expanded access can continue.”
Since an overwhelming share of dairy farms operate year-round, the H-2A visa expansion doesn’t address the industry’s labor shortage beyond seasonal work, Gonzalez said.
An ideal visa reform would open access for new foreign workers and provide documented status for the existing workforce, O’Neil said.
That kind of immigration reform could only happen through Congressional action, he said.
“We need to get something in place that allows immigrants that have good standing and good work policies or good work ethics to stay in the country for a longer period of time than we currently have, especially in dairy industry, where it’s not seasonal work,” Von Ruden said.
Gorell called for a pathway to citizenship for H-2A workers after completing their maximum three-year stay.
“When they come here and live here and work for that length of time, they’re obviously establishing a home and a livelihood and a beginning here in the United States,” he said.
These long-term reforms are necessary because there aren’t enough Americans willing to work at dairy farms, Gonzalez said.
“U.S.-born citizens don’t move to north, central Wisconsin looking to go milk cows, you know?” he said.
“So that labor comes from other sources, and it needs to be acknowledged,” Gonzalez said. “But at least it’s a step forward, and perhaps some reforms to it will address the real need, which is to have workers on a more permanent basis.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin dairy farms lack workers. This Trump visa change might help
Reporting by Jaeha Jang, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jaeha Jang, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
