By Doug Cunningham
The Michigan Farm Bureau wants to see immigration reform that allows immigrants regardless of status to keep working in the U.S. John Kran, National Legislative Counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau, says immigration law needs to be revamped when the federal government finally does reopen.
“We’ve been spending the last couple of decades really talking about how we need to see the immigration system re-vamped for agriculture. And that addresses both short and long-term labor needs, so the folks that are here currently in the U.S., whether they have proper status or not, making sure that they have an ability to keep working in agriculture. And also that future flow of workers.”
When it comes to use of immigrant labor, Kran says the current visa program isn’t working well for all farmers.
“We’ve been using more and more the H2A visa program to bring in workers for a short contract and they return when that contract is up to their country of origin. But that program only works for some farmers. It doesn’t work for year-round agriculture like dairy and livestock production.”
