Farm laborers to receive greater protections under Biden administration proposal

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
September 12, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigrant farm workers would receive a raft of new protections under a Biden administration proposal to be announced Tuesday, which would boost safety requirements on farms and raise transparency around how such workers are brought to the U.S., to combat human trafficking.

The proposal would reform the H-2A visa program, under which hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Mexico, take on seasonal jobs in the U.S. agriculture industry. The number of people admitted under the program has soared in recent years, as rapid hiring after the pandemic and a low unemployment rate has left many farmers scrambling for workers.

Last year, about 370,000 people were admitted with H-2A visas, double the number in 2016 and five times as many as in 2005, Labor Department officials said. Yet as the popularity of the program has grown, so have concerns about abuses. Reports of overcrowded farm vehicles and fatalities have increased as the numbers have risen, senior department officials said.

The department is already required to ensure that the H-2A program doesn’t undercut the wages or working conditions of Americans who take similar jobs. Employers are required to pay minimum U.S. wages or higher, depending on the region.

“This proposed rule is a critical step in our ongoing efforts to strengthen protections for farm workers and ensure that they have the right to fair and predictable wages, safe working conditions and freedom from retaliation,” said Julie Su, acting secretary of Labor, in a statement.

The new rule, which is subject to a 60-day comment period, seeks to make it easier for labor unions to contact and interact with the H-2A workers, and to protect the workers from retaliation if they meet with labor representatives. The workers would be allowed to have visitors, including those from labor groups, in employer-provided housing, for example.

The rule would also require farmers who employ H-2A workers to provide seat belts on vans that are often used to transport workers long distances. Transportation accidents are a leading cause of death for farm workers, according to the department.

And in a step intended to counter human trafficking, employers would be required to identify anyone recruiting workers on their behalf in the U.S. or foreign countries and to provide copies of any agreements they have with those recruiters.

Another visa program, the H-2B, which allows temporary workers in fields other than agriculture, already includes similar requirements, department officials said.

“We’re putting together a series of new protections or clarifying protections to make sure that workers in the program can really advocate on behalf of themselves, and that...will help prevent the problems that we’re seeing with exploitative conditions,” a senior Labor department official said.

House Democrats urge Biden to ease work permit rules for migrants, asylum seekers


Hundreds of asylum seekers dwell in a tent city in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2021. In a letter dated Sunday and signed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the ranking minority member on the House Judiciary Committee, and 102 other Democrats, lawmakers urge President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to "use all the tools available" to assist migrants who seek but can't obtain work permits as they wait for their immigration court cases to be heard.

 File Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo


Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Dozens of House Democrats are urging the Biden administration to take whatever steps are necessary to speed the process of granting work permits to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers.

In a letter dated Sunday and signed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the ranking minority member on the House Judiciary Committee, and 102 other Democrats, lawmakers urge President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to "use all the tools available" to assist migrants who seek but can't obtain work permits as they wait for their immigration court cases to be heard.

The letter, first obtained by Politico, said such migrants are "stuck in limbo" without the ability to obtain work authorizations despite "want[ing] to work and give back to their new communities."

Asylum seekers, the lawmakers wrote, "should be permitted to apply to obtain work authorization from the moment that they file their asylum claim." Instead, under current regulations, they must wait up to six months after submitting asylum applications before work authorizations can be issued.

"As a result, asylum seekers are forced to rely on underfunded community groups to provide them with everything from housing to food to health services," they wrote. "This is particularly troubling given the tight labor market we are experiencing across the country."

The Democrats urged the Biden administration to "ease the undue delays" by adopting a series of available measures, such as the increased use of "humanitarian parole" and "provisional waivers" and decreasing the regulatory 150-day wait period for asylum seekers to apply for work authorization.

The plea comes at a time when the House Republican majority is seeking to clamp down on undocumented migrants and asylum seekers rather than easing their transition into the United States.

Conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus last month threatened to force a government shutdown unless the measures contained in the "Secure the Border Act of 2023" are enacted as part of any stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government functioning amid the debate on appropriations measures.

Among its other provisions, the legislation would restart construction of former President Donald Trump's border wall and slap new restrictions on asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers wait to enter U.S. in Tijuana

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Asylum seekers wait in line for food near El Chaparral plaza in Tijuana, 

Mexico on March 21. 

Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo