Farm labor recruiter alleges visa backlog

(MCT) YAKIMA, Wash. -- The state's leading recruiter of foreign guest farm workers alleged Wednesday that a federal visa backlog has stranded Mexican workers at the border just as the state's apples are nearing harvest.

A group of farm workers on their way to orchards in Eastern Washington has been stuck at the border for nine days awaiting their temporary work visas, said Dan Fazio, director of the Washington Farm Labor Association.

The workers are running out of money to pay for hotels and food, costs their employers would normally reimburse when they arrive, Fazio said in a news release Wednesday.

"This is truly a crisis," Fazio said. "The workers are stuck at the border with no money, and the farmers have no workers."

Fazio did not reply to phone messages requesting elaboration on the problem.

Meanwhile, growers have apples just about ready to pick. Each year, the apple harvest stretches into November but some of the earlier varieties, such as Gingergolds, have been known to come off trees the first week of August.

All crops have been early this year and apples should be no exception, said Jon DeVaney, executive director of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association.

"If you're wondering whether growers might really mean it if they say they need their workers now, the answer is yes," he said.

U.S. State Department officials Wednesday confirmed the visa backlog and attributed it to computer difficulties. But Fazio blamed the problems on the surge of children from Central America flooding the U.S. border.

"In early July, informal liaison with the U.S. Consulate staff in Tijuana indicated the delays were caused by the humanitarian crisis related to unaccompanied minors from Central America," Fazio said in the release.

One State Department official flatly denied the connection to the immigrant children.

"This is a technical issue ... in no way related to the unaccompanied minors crossing the border," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the visa problems.

A spokeswoman from the department said the computer system that prints visas crashed on July 19 and only partially returned July 23.

"It crashed and it's not a small deal, it's a pretty big deal," said Nicole Thompson, a Washington, D.C., spokeswoman for the State Department.

Fazio has asked Democrats Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Dennis Heck of the 10th District for help.

In a July 24 letter, Fazio asked them to seek promises from the White House to speed up the temporary work visa process in the event there is emergency funding to deal with the humanitarian crisis. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion to speed up the deportation proceedings of the refugee children.

"Senate support for the administration's funding to process undocumented individuals, which we support, should be contingent on an assurance from the State Department and the administration that they can do their jobs with respect to people who are attempting to use the legal system for nonimmigrant work visas," the letter said.

Sean Coit, Murray's spokesman, said only that her office is communicating directly with the State Department about the backlog.

Fazio's letter also shared a example of his group's dilemma.

Only 15 workers out of a group of 36 received visas recently, he wrote in the letter. The employer finally got desperate and brought up the chartered bus more than half-empty while scrambling to find hotel rooms and another bus for the remaining 21.

Washington growers in recent years have struggled to find enough seasonal workers to harvest fruit, especially apples. Some state employment reports put the shortage at 15 percent.

Year after year, farmers have been increasingly attempting to fill the empty spots with temporary foreign workers under the State Department's H-2A visa, paying for their visas and all their travel expenses, building housing for hundreds of workers and putting themselves at risk of lawsuits from workers' rights advocates.

Fazio's Lacey-based nonprofit, often called WFLA, acts as an agricultural human resources service that specializes in recruiting and placing those foreign workers.

He expects growers in the state to bring in more than 8,000 workers this year; WFLA represents about 80 percent of them.