Summary

A sudden widespread farm labor shortage requiring the importation of large numbers of foreign workers is unlikely to occur in the near future. GAO's review of the H-2A nonimmigrant guestworker program--which allows the U.S. agricultural sector to bring foreign workers into the United States to do seasonal agricultural work on a temporary basis when domestic workers are unavailable--found that there appears to be no national agricultural labor shortage now but that localized shortages may exist for specific crops or geographic areas. Although an estimated 600,000 farmworkers are not legally authorized to work in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service does not expect its enforcement efforts to significantly reduce the supply of farmworkers. Few agricultural employers seek workers through the H-2A program, but those that do generally succeed in obtaining foreign agricultural workers on both a regular and an emergency basis. However, both employers and Labor Department officials have had difficulty meeting time frames set by law and regulation. Changes in the program's operations could improve the ability of growers to obtain workers when needed and better protect the wages and working conditions of both domestic and foreign workers. These changes include reducing both the time required to process applications and the period of time that the worker must be employed to qualify for a wage guarantee.

GAO noted that: (1) a sudden widespread farm labor shortage requiring the importation of large numbers of foreign workers is unlikely to occur in the near future; (2) there appears to be no national agricultural labor shortage, but localized labor shortages may exist for specific crops or geographical areas; (3) although many farmworkers--an estimated 600,000--are not legally authorized to work in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) does not expect its enforcement activities to significantly reduce the aggregate supply of farmworkers; (4) INS expects limited impact from its enforcement activities because of the prevalence of fraudulently documented farmworkers and INS' competing enforcement priorities; (5) in fiscal year (FY) 1996, less than 5 percent of the 4,600 INS worksite enforcement efforts were directed at agricultural workplaces; (6) INS conducts enforcement efforts largely in response to complaints, and it receives few complaints about agricultural employers; (7) INS officials in both field and headquarters positions stated unanimously that operational impediments prevented the agency from significantly reducing the number of unauthorized farmworkers; (8) the prevalence of unauthorized and fraudulently documented farmworkers does, however, leave individual growers vulnerable to sudden labor shortages if INS does target its enforcement efforts on their establishments; (9) although few agricultural employers seek workers through the H-2A program, those that do are generally successful in obtaining foreign agricultural workers on both a regular and an emergency basis; (10) during FY 1996 and the first 9 months of FY 1997, the Department of Labor approved 99 percent of all H-2A applications; (11) however, both employers and Labor officials have difficulty meeting time frames specified by law and regulation; (12) because Labor does not collect key program management information, it is unable to determine the extent and cause of missed time frames; (13) the multiple agencies and levels of government implementing the program may result in redundant oversight and confusion for both employers and workers; and (14) while INS enforcement efforts are unlikely to create a significant increase in demand for H-2A workers, changes in H-2A program operations could improve the ability of growers to obtain workers when needed--whether or not a nationwide labor shortage exists--and better protect the wages and working conditions of both domestic and foreign workers.