NPR explains: Employers say that the big jump in H-2A applications is partly because the worker shortage is getting worse. But it’s also because farmers who hire lots of workers — and the workers themselves — are worried about the Trump administration’s tougher enforcement of immigration laws. Many farm workers who live in the United States are citizens of Mexico or Central American countries and don’t have legal authorization to be in this country.
The Capital Press article explained: “We have a continuing labor shortage and at some point it will reach a steeper incline because workers are getting older and H-2A is the only replacement,” Gasperini said.
ECONorthwest of Portland, Oregon conducted an analysis of the economic impact of guest workers in Washington state for wafla, and reported:
The agricultural sector in Washington has experienced a decline in available domestic labor supply in recent years. Traditional agricultural labor is “aging-out” (retiring), fewer of the next generation are seeking employment in agriculture, and many former agricultural workers have been assimilated into other sectors of the economy. Border enforcement and the lengthy process of gaining work authorization has discouraged many from looking for agricultural work in the U.S.
This has resulted in increased use of the H-2A program to ensure an adequate number of workers are available to tend to and harvest crops. This is especially true in labor-intensive fruit crops, where non-H- 2A employment has declined by 7 percent since 2010. Since that time, reliance on the H-2A program has increased across as growers look to fill the labor shortage.
Berry farms are the largest users of the guest worker program with about 21,000 guest workers involved in the berry harvest in 2017 according to the Capital Press.