Do we already have an immigrant guest worker program?

[Nikia]

I have been told by a couple of people, who may have an interest in telling people this (People in the Mexican community and people who work at companies who allegedly do this), that U.S. companies have a right to hire immigrants for temporary seasonal work (like certain harvests and processing operations) and that many companies do legally hire immigrant labor this way. Is this true? How would the proposed legislation differ from this if this is already in place?

[HeeBGBz]

1. We do in Branson

We have student workers here from Romania, Poland, Russia and Thailand.

[Nikia]

2. Does anyone know if this is true?

I just wondered. I think that most people agree that extra people are needed at certain times of the year in certain areas where there might not be that many workers who would be willing to take seasonal employment. I wondered whether people were already being hired legally to have these jobs or whether they comapnies must depend on illegal labor at least for a percentage of their workers.

[politicat]

3. Yes. It's the H visa program

H1A visas are for registered nurses.
H2A visas are for seasonal or temporary agricultural workers.
H1B visas are for specific professional jobs and are specific to a company and are supposed to be temporary. They can be transferred from company to company, but there's supposed to be a six year maximum. In theory, it's hard to transfer from H1B to green card, but it happens more often than not.
H2B visas are for non-agricultural, non-technical workers for temporary (1 year or less) or seasonal work. Employers' needs cannot be ongoing or continuous.

Regarding H2A visas:

USCIS application procedures :
H2-A Temporary Agricultural Workers
The H-2A labor certification program was created as a mean for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the U.S.

In order to obtain an H-2A certification, the employer must show to the DOL that his need for a worker is seasonal or of a temporary nature. "Temporary or seasonal nature" means employment performed at certain seasons of the year, usually in relation to the production and/or harvesting of a crop, or for a limited time period of less than one year when an employer can show that the need for the foreign workers(s) is truly temporary.

Second, the employer must also demonstrate that there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available and that the hiring of a temporary foreign worker will have no adverse effect on the wages or working conditions of similarly employed US workers. That wage or rate of pay must be the same for U.S. workers and H-2A workers.

Employers are required to provide H-2A workers with the following benefits:

The employer must provide free housing to all workers who are not able to return to their residences the same day,
Three meals a day to each worker or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities for workers to prepare their own meals.
The employer must also provide free transportation to the work site.
In terms of insurance, workers compensation insurance will be granted where it is required by state law.
The H-2A certification is valid for up to 364 days. Extensions of up to one year are possible, but cannot exceed three years.

The reason illegal labor gets used instead of the H2A program is that the H2A program is expensive for employers. (Housing, transportation, and market level wages?? Oh no!)

[Nikia]

5. Thanks

I am sorry that I did not see your post why I was looking up info and posting.
Given that there is a legal avenue, albeit more expensive, I think that employers who use illegal labor should be severely penalized.

[politicat]

7. Me, too.

I don't see the point about going after poor, desperate people who have little chance of being able to support or defend themselves in court except by illegal labor. They're just an easy target and an easy scapegoat. Going after the businesses who make it attractive is a far better solution; there are already laws on the books that fine businesses that use illegal labor (and those fines are extensive.)

The twin problems are that it's split turf - Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, Department of Labor and Homeland Security all have possible jurisdiction to take on those who violate the laws, and effectively, nothing gets done because they pass the buck. The second problem is that congress and the executive get campaign contributions from corporations who use illegal labor, while undocumented workers are rarely $100,000 donors.

Conflict of interest? Yeah, you betcha.

[Nikia]

4. I found some info

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1271.html
There are H 2A visas for temporary agriculture workers and H 2B visas for other temporary workers. It looks like there is a limit on the number of non agriculture workers that can be admitted. It doesn't list a limit for agriculure workers.
Why are there some companies that won't use this legal avenue to hire non American workers, especially in the agricultural sector? Given that there is a legal solution available, these businesses should should be severely penalized.
How would a guest worker program be different than these temporary worker visas? Even if the number of visas were expanded, shouldn't everyone still be documented and that the business has to meet certain qualifications to hire non citizen/permanent resident labor?

[treestar]

6. Yes but there is a quota

You can literally prove to the government that you are not displacing a US worker in the course of making out a case for H-2. However, if the quota has been filled, you're screwed. We will only take so many foreigners to work here, even if they are needed, even if it hurts our economy. Just on the principal of not letting more than x number of foreigners in.

Every category has an arbitrary quota that exists even after you have proven that you can't fill the job with a US worker.

Since these people don't come, the companies don't grow, resulting in the long run in a loss of jobs to US workers. We are short sighted and stupid, thinking that the number of available jobs stays the same and that magically the US population will happen to be the ones who can and want to fill them, so that any alien her is "stealing a job from a US worker."

[Jim Warren]

8. Called International Workers

Summer camp positions from Eastern Europe