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We Treat Guests Like Unwanted StrangersScott Farm, the largest tomato producer in eastern Tennessee, employs 125 guest workers from April till November. Numerous workers return annually because Wayne Scott, the owner, treats his workers with dignity and provides adequate lodging and facilities. He pays their transportation to and from Mexico and most workers make well over 50 percent above minimum wage. A few years ago Mr. Scott, a devout Christian, built a Catholic chapel where Mass is celebrated every Sunday during the growing season. For Scott Farm the guest worker program appears to satisfy both employer and workers. But, in southeastern Arkansas one incident years ago shows that guest workers can be treated more like unwanted strangers. Fifty guest workers-those who serve under contract to a sole employer--found themselves with no food, transportation and without pay when their employer near Hermitage, Arkansas, declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11. The workers could not legally seek employment on another farm because of their visas, yet they had no money for bus fare home. Somehow half of the workers dispersed to other farms or got back home, but the nearby parish in Warren raised over $500 to provide transportation for the remaining 25. Eventually a federal agency recouped the back wages, but because of faulty records not everyone got paid. In January, 2004, President Bush proposed a major reform of immigration policy that would make most of the estimated 8 to 14 million undocumented immigrants eligible for temporary legal status. He proposed new guest worker visas renewable for three-year periods, plus allow employers to contract additional immigrant workers on the same terms. However, these proposals would not provide a process for achieving permanent-resident status or citizenship. American agriculture depends on guest workers. The official agricultural guest worker program, designated "H-2A" after the section and paragraph, as amended, in the Immigration and Nationality Act, offers temporary, non-immigrant agricultural visas. These visas require some detailed paperwork, but allow foreign nationals to work in the U.S. on a temporary or seasonal basis. They tie the workers to one employer and stipulate that workers can work only for the employer that sponsored their entry. After completing their contract, they must return to their country of origin. Authorities estimate that 70,000 agricultural workers are currently employed in the United States under this program. While the law mandates that employers provide transportation, a minimum hourly wage and adequate housing, H-2A workers lack the right to organize, strike, bargain collectively, change employers or quit their job. The balance of power resides with the employer, making worker justice dependent on the employer's integrity. Unfortunately, the unofficial, or real, guest worker program in the U.S. comprises the undocumented with no rights or redress to law. Fully more than half of the 1.6 million agricultural field workers carry this status. "Regardless of their legal status, migrants, like all persons, possess inherent human dignity that should be respected," write the Catholic bishops of the United States and Mexico in their joint 2003 pastoral, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope." They recognize that migration is a human right and that "migration between our two nations is necessary and beneficial." Addressing the situation of undocumented workers, they advocate a program of amnesty and legalization. The bishops recognize that most immigrant workers perform the lower skilled jobs in the agriculture, construction and service sectors. With the economy so dependent on them, the bishops ask for a comprehensive immigration reform to insure justice for immigrants seeking a new home in the U.S. and those coming as guests.
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Catholic Conference of Kentucky 1042 Burlington Lane Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
502-875-4345
Last modified: August, 2008 |
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