Crops Rot for Want of Laborers

Some Michigan farmers are being forced to leave crops to rot in the field for lack of available harvest laborers.

The Detroit News calls the problem shameful and blames bad immigration policy, which it says could be easily fixed if Congress would stop fighting about immigration and start adopting sensible regulations.

The newspaper suggests Congress simply expand the H-2A visa program, which allows workers to enter the United States for a specific time frame to perform a specific task.

It calls the program “the perfect tool for the agriculture industry to get a surge of workers into the fields at harvest time. When the crops are picked, the workers can return home, which is what most want to do anyway.”

But the stalemate over immigration rules—plus the obstructionism of labor unions that fear H-2A workers will take jobs from American workers—keeps that visa program firmly capped.

That not only hurts farmers, who can’t harvest their crops, but it also encourages farm workers to skirt the rules and enter the country illegally.

Washington must simplify and expand the H-2A program to make it easier for farmers to get the laborers they need. S