Earlier this week, Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the administration plans to eliminate burdensome regulations that harm rural communities and farmers. Chavez-DeRemer made the comments during a speech at the Western Governors Association meeting held in Santa Fe, N.M.
Chavez-DeRemer acknowledged the critical role of farmworkers.
“Most of us have a significant agriculture industry in our states, and those migrant workers who come in are just so important,” she said. “I would love for Americans to want to do those jobs. I can just tell you, none of the Americans I know want to do some of these jobs.”
She said that while it’s important to fix illegal immigration, it’s also important that the administration improve the efficiency of the H-2A guestworker program. She said she’s constantly asked if the agency can improve the affordability, speed and processes for this H-2A program. She responded that while it’s important to secure the borders, it’s also important to think of food security as national security.
“We do need the workforce, and when you talk to either our congressmen or senators or governors, the seasonal approach oftentimes is year round, but at the time, in their respective states, it can sometimes be three weeks and four weeks, and they need those workers today,” she said.
She said the Department of Labor will set up an emergency agency to help process the backlog of H-2A applications in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the USDA.
“We’re going to do one dedicated one-stop shop, as I call it, and the IT systems on board so that they can log on and see it and have a live dashboard to see exactly when those permits can be done,” she says. “We’re going to see that change come across fairly rapidly, because that’s the problem, and they want a solution, and they wanted it yesterday, and now we’re finally going to lean in, and then we’ll work with Congress on the longer-term issues of immigration reform as it needs to be addressed.”
Bloomberg Law reported that the Department of Labor has sent a proposed regulation of the H-2A program for review with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Chavez-DeRemer says she understands there is an immediate need for a stable labor force for growers, and that is why the Department of Labor plans some short-term fixes as well as plans to work with Congress.
“I think there is that immediate need to be able to get through, but there’s also, the repeat worker that comes back year after year, and the dependability of that,” she says. “It has seemed a little less certain, let me say, for some of our employers. And so whatever way we can bring some stability to both those programs [H-2A, H-1B}, and J-1s, I think, are also important as well.”
