“As the ongoing federal immigration crackdown worsens the already severe farm labor shortage, the H-2A guest worker program serves as an expensive but desperately-needed last resort to help farms here in Washington state and across the nation bring in their harvests.
“The heavily-regulated program, while costly and cumbersome, provides a lifeline for American farmers to continue producing food here, rather than watching American consumers eat even more food imported from foreign countries.
“Save Family Farming applauds the federal government’s efforts to keep this program as efficient as possible, even while maintaining border security, safeguarding domestic workers, and protecting guest workers.
“This policy change will allow foreign workers who have already worked on American farms through H-2A visas, and who remain in good standing, to move through the program’s visa renewal process without the unnecessary, costly and time-consuming hurdle of a redundant in-person interview.
“This smart move will make the process better for the workers, for the American farms hiring them, and ultimately for American consumers.”