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The Trump administration wants to limit nearly all of the ways that someone can enter the U.S. legally, and that includes worker visas. There's one type of visa even some Republicans want to expand. Demand for the H-2A visa for seasonal agriculture labor is skyrocketing. Farmers say it's long overdue for an update. NPR's Ximena Bustillo has the story.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Dozens of farmers and groups representing food products like apples, peaches and dairy gathered in a room in Washington, D.C. They all came for one reason.
CRICKET JACQUIER: So you ask any dairy farmer in Connecticut or really anywhere across the country, their No. 1 concern at the farm is the access to labor.
BUSTILLO: That's Cricket Jacquier. He's a dairy farmer and like others in the industry wants to use H-2A visas to hire workers.
JACQUIER: We have no access to using H-2A on our dairies because of the seasonal component that was always in H-2A. Our dairy farms must run seven days a week. They must operate 365 days a year. We need access to workers year-round.
BUSTILLO: He is hoping that a new bill in the House can be the solution. Last week, House Agriculture Committee chairman, GT Thompson, introduced a measure that would give dairies access to H-2A. It would also increase the time frame farmers could keep the workers, and it would provide a way for those working illegally to be brought into the visa program. Thompson said now is the time for these kinds of reforms.
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GT THOMPSON: I traveled across the entire country asking producers what they needed from Congress so that they could do the important work of feeding and clothing the world. The issue of agriculture labor kept being brought up.
BUSTILLO: Over half of farmworkers are without legal status, according to the Agriculture Department. The H-2A program is a way for farmers to get legal workers, and since 2012, use of the visas has increased by more than 500%. Thompson hopes his fellow Republican colleagues are ready to come to the table.
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THOMPSON: You know, I think part of it is the border is under control. Part of it is the fact that food security clearly is national security, and workforce is a main factor.
BUSTILLO: The measure has received support from nearly every corner of the farming industry, but expanding H-2A visas has been met with opposition from labor and groups further on the right. Teresa Romero is the president of the United Farm Workers Union.
TERESA ROMERO: We have workers who are residents, legal residents. We have workers who are citizens, and we have workers who are undocumented workers. And many of these workers, like I said, that are citizens are being harmed by these changes.
BUSTILLO: She wants workers to get a more direct path to legal status under any deal. Visa worker status is tied to a specific employer, so they're more vulnerable to workplace abuses, she says.
ROMERO: Why do we want to bring a workforce that is more vulnerable instead of having a workforce that is experienced that we can legalize, that we can compensate for the sacrifices that they have made?
BUSTILLO: Other critics of the H-2A program include Simon Hankinson from the Conservative Heritage Foundation. He agrees the visa program is complicated for both farmers and workers.
SIMON HANKINSON: It kind of is the worst of both worlds for employers who are trying to do the right thing and I suppose for employees who are trying to do the right thing as well.
BUSTILLO: But he does not want anything that resembles a legal pathway for those who are undocumented now.
HANKINSON: It wasn't just close the border, but we also have to deport the people who were ordered deported.
BUSTILLO: Still, demand for the program among those who use it is only growing. Sydney Allison runs Wild Goose Farms in Florida, growing blueberries and other crops. She credits the H-2A program for her business surviving but worries about the future.
SYDNEY ALLISON: We would not have a farm without this H-2A program. We can't grow without some of these things in the bill. We can't continue to expand. Like, we honestly will probably shrink.
BUSTILLO: Farmers say the program is here to stay, but if it's not changed, their own farms may not be here for long. Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.
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