Midstate farmers hope new immigration rules don’t hurt harvests

As talk continues about a new immigration plan and the prospect of faster deportations of undocumented immigrants, some Georgia farmers are wondering what it all could mean for them.

Their attitude might change to concern if executive orders hamper farmers from getting the workers they need to bring in Georgia’s crops of fruit and vegetables.

“Right now, it’s a little early for us to really know (what the effect might be) because most of our growers have not gotten to the point they need a large number of workers,” said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. “I hate to say there is concern because there may not be any effect.”

The large farms in Georgia find most of their workers through a federally managed visa program referred to as H-2A. It allows foreign workers to enter the United States to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural labor. The farmers enter into a contract for the workers through the program, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The farmers who hire workers through the H-2A program must first try to find local workers “who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work,” according to the visa requirements. The process to get H-2A workers is long, tedious and requires a lot of paperwork.

Right now, it’s that process that concerns workers and farmers, Hall said.

“Their worry is if the Department of Labor will hold up their end of the contract and get the workers here on time,” he said. “I talked to a grower (recently), and he’s going to have his workers here two weeks before he needs them because of some regulation. … Every H-2A worker has to go through an interview with the consulate before they can come into this country.”

Last spring, a farm labor shortage was reported in 20 states due to backlogs of 30 days or more in processing H-2A applications at the Department of Labor and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Farmers contract to have workers arrive right at the time they are needed, so any holdup could be devastating. The fruit and vegetable industry in Georgia relies on many temporary workers, as it’s more labor intensive to work with peaches, melons and strawberries than working with row crops such as cotton, soybeans and peanuts, which have become more mechanized.

Agricultural labor includes planting, cultivating, harvesting and preparing crops for market and storage.

Georgia had about 18,000 H-2A workers in 2015, and that number will be closer to 20,000 this year, Hall said. The total number in the U.S. was about 140,000 in 2015 and it is expected to be about 150,000 or more this year.

“I do know that our H-2A program serves between 10 (percent)-12 percent of the ag workers,” Hall said. The rest include domestic workers, migrant workers and undocumented workers.

“Right now, none of the raids or executive orders have been targeted toward agriculture,” Hall said.

Under an “expedited removals” plan released last month, federal agents could quickly deport suspected undocumented immigrants without an appearance before a judge. The plan would apply nationwide and cover thousands more undocumented immigrants, including anyone who entered the country within the last two years.

“Very few” locals apply for farm work

Al Pearson, owner of Pearson Farms in Fort Valley, had already hired 80 people earlier this month through the guest worker program to work in his peach orchards. He doesn’t expect any immigration issues to affect the people he’s got. The workers have worked on his farm before — many of them coming back year after year.

His crew leader and his family, originally from Mexico, are legal residents. “And we are blessed to have them. They are good people,” he said. They have worked at Pearson Farms since the mid-1980s.

“I’m maybe blindly confident, but I would like to think that a legal program that is working will not be high on a list of any immigration enforcement,” Pearson said. “We toe the line and depend on it.

“Certainly there is always a possibility that something might come up that would negatively impact it. And that would be devastating for a lot of agriculture that has turned to the guest worker program because they honestly feel that the labor source is not there to be able to confidently grow and plan and invest in your crop.”

Pearson, just as many other large midstate peach and pecan growers, advertised in The Telegraph this winter to try to find local workers as part of the requirement to use the H-2A program. Ads call for experienced farm workers who can “reach overhead for extended periods of time while pruning trees; lift, carry and load up to 50 lbs., hoist up to 30 lbs. overhead and support 35 lbs. over the shoulder while walking for prolonged periods of time. ... Work is outside in inclement weather, especially extreme heat or cold for extensive period of time ... .”

Pearson said “very few” applied for the jobs, and he didn’t hire any of them. “The ones that applied had no experience, and that’s a requirement. ... If you show up with no experience, I probably won’t hire you. But if you show up with experience, you’re hired.”

Last year Pearson hired about the same number of workers for the early spring work needed. He’s going to wait to see how the peach crop progresses to determine how many he might need to thin the crop and for the packing shed.

Small farmers and those who grow crops that don’t require workers for a long period of time don’t participate in the H-2A program because they can’t recover the cost of housing and transportation of workers, he said.

“The administrative burden doesn’t go away just because you are a small farm,” he said. “It just doesn’t make economic sense for some people to be involved in it, so they have to try to source their labor from local sources or a different manner than H-2A.”

Raymond Joyce, the county extension coordinator in Laurens County, said the one remaining Vidalia onion farm in his county doesn’t use the H-2A program to find workers. The farmer finds local labor to work with the three-acre onion crop.

“For the packing, he uses high school kids,” Joyce said.

“We don’t really have any labor-intensive crops anymore” in Laurens County, he said. “We just have the row crops, (such as) peanuts, soybeans, corn and wheat in winter. ... We don’t have the commercial vegetable farming anymore like we used to.”

Earlier this month, the Georgia Department of Agriculture set April 12 as the official pack date for Vidalia onions, so they will be available to customers after that date.

The warm weather most of the winter may cause farmers to adjust the timing of their crops somewhat, and of course weather during the growing season always affects how well a crop does.

But the weather isn’t the only thing farmers have to think about this year.

“It depends on what happens with the workforce,” Hall said. “That will have a major effect on how we wind up.”

This story was originally published March 17, 2017 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Midstate farmers hope new immigration rules don’t hurt harvests."