“I know they are legal,” Leitz said of his H-2A workers. “If ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) comes in at least I know I still have workers.”
Thus far, Leitz said: “We are doing okay. We have enough workers.”
While mass arrests of migrant farm workers might not be common, that specter is every grower’s nightmare: Their work force could disappear overnight.
In February, ICE agents in Oregon stopped two buses transporting Latino farm workers and detained 11 men who were then subject to deportation proceedings. The men were on their way to work harvesting flowers when they were apprehended.
In April, ICE conducted an immigration raid at a Pennsylvania mushroom farm that resulted in the arrest of 12 immigrant workers. According to newspaper accounts, they were booked and put in custody to face deportation.
Michigan growers say it’s impossible to know for certain if workers are undocumented, since employers are required by law to accept a variety of ID’s for employment, such as a Social Security card, birth certificate and driver’s license. They can easily be forged.
By law, farmers who employ H-2A workers are required to advertise their job openings in local newspapers to assure that Americans get first crack at the jobs. But they say few locals bother to show up.
“We have (Americans) that want to drive tractors,” Leitz told Bridge in February. “But nobody wants to harvest. Working in fields with hot or cold weather is not for everybody.”
Selling farmers on visas
In 2014, the Michigan Farm Bureau spun off a for-profit company called Great Lakes Ag Labor Services to help farmers navigate the complex H-2A process. It worked with four farms the first year, 10 in 2015, 21 in 2016 and some three dozen this year. It helped import 705 guest workers in 2016 and more than 1,200 this year.
“We’ve been doubling every year,” said Eligio Larraga, sales and field representative for Great Lakes. “When growers call us or come to us, it’s because they are struggling to find workers.”
Larraga meets with interested growers, explains how the program works and helps with everything from its maze of paperwork to how to advertise job openings. While H-2A workers are more expensive than undocumented migrant workers, Larraga said they give growers something hard to put a price on: peace of mind.
“If you use this program there is not going to be such a thing as a shortage of workers. There are literally thousands of workers in Mexico that would like the opportunity to (legally) work in the United States.
“They can make enough money to take care of their family for an entire year. They can make in a day what they make in a week there,” Larraga said.
But as long as undocumented labor continues to be a large part of Michigan’s farm work force, Larraga conceded the H-2A program alone will not solve the farm shortage.
“It’s not the solution. But it’s the only legal program out there for workers.”
In the meantime, Larraga said he’s not entirely surprised that some migrant workers are still coming to Michigan despite the shadow of deportation.
“If I was undocumented, I would be concerned. The fear is still there. But the workers don’t know anything else. They still have to work. They have to make money. They have to feed their family.”
A few months back, blueberry grower Bill Fritz worried he might lack the workers to pick his crops.
He’s not worried now.
“Everything is going good,” said Fritz, who farms 350 acres of blueberries in Allegan and Van Buren counties. At peak harvest time, he employs some 700 migrant workers – and he was expecting more earlier this month as the New Jersey blueberry crop wound down.
“Everyone is here,” he told Bridge. “They all showed up.” {read}