- Guest Worker Changes could Indicate Shift in Labor Policy
- By Greg Brown
Associate Editor
- Produce growers who are dependant on hand laborers have seen their share of labor shortages in the past several years.
Legislation being considered and the efforts of a presidential-appointed working group could change the U.S. guest worker standards that would bring more workers to farms.
While changes aren’t close at hand, two efforts are investigating the advantages and disadvantages of altering the guest worker rules. Texas Senator Phil Gramm is in what his staff calls a listening period on the issue, while a working group managed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft are working closely with Mexican officials to craft a plan.
Gramm’s “U.S.-Mexico Guest Worker Program” prospectus is a preliminary proposal to spark debate on the issue. Changes to the current guest worker policy are the only true solution to illegal immigration and a fair guest worker program is what is needed, according to Gramm.
“A well-structured, competently run guest worker program would unite the United States and Mexico in an honest initiative aimed at bringing jobs, growth and opportunity to the people of both countries,” said Gramm. The proposal acknowledges that millions of Mexican citizens go to work every day in America in violation of our immigration law and outside the protection of our labor law, and hopes to encourage more part-time workers in the United States.
Gramm’s proposed guest worker program would permit adult participants to accept work in the United States on an annual or seasonal basis, where year-by-year extensions would be permitted. The U.S., in cooperation with Mexico, will operate a computer registry to monitor entry and exit of guest workers. Guests would not become citizens, but return to their home country when the work was completed.
Seasonal workers who return to Mexico in their off-season could receive annual guest worker permits indefinitely. Those guest workers that work for the entire year could reapply and receive up to three consecutive permits, after which they would have to return to Mexico for a year before reapplying.
According to Gramm’s Press Secretary Larry Neal response to the proposal has been greatly varied. He is gathering material, ideas, suggestions and objections from all comers on what a guest worker program might entail.
“The comments span a pretty wide universe, said Neal. “Everyone from growers to farm workers - a whole variety of organizations and individuals have commented.”
Senator Gramm has met with a variety of different growing organizations, and Mexican President Vicente Fox and President Bush. Neal said any actual creation of a bill could be several weeks, possibly, several months away, so growers shouldn’t expect any relief this year.
In February the Westwood, Calif. group “Stand Up for America,” protested the Texas Senator’s proposed guest worker program for Mexican migrant laborers. The coalition took issue with the timing of the proposal - when the U.S. is entering “the most severe recession” the country has seen in more than a decade .
Others complain that Gramm’s plan doesn’t limit the sectors of employment, which could cause woes, some say, for the American construction worker. While the prospectus would require employers to show that they had made a good-faith effort to hire Americans, critics remain skeptical.
While Gramm has been taking comments on his prospectus, U.S. and Mexico officials have met to discuss migration issues. The two-nation migration work group, formed during President Bush’s visit in February with President Fox, was led for Mexico by Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel. Powell and Ashcroft led the meetings for the Bush administration.
In a written statement issued at the end of the meeting in Washington, American and Mexican officials indicated that they viewed migration as an issue of “shared responsibility” that must be addressed on both sides of the border. For Mexico, where government officials had consistently regarded any efforts to regulate the northward migration as an infringement on their people’s fundamental rights, the statement represented a major philosophical shift.
The guest worker program being designed by the president’s working group would allow a worker to stay for three to 12 months per year. Under the provisions of the tentative plan, if a worker only stays for certain seasons, they may work in the country indefinitely. If the worker stays year-round, then they may stay for three years, then return to Mexico for one year before returning to work in the U.S.
