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In Congress’s hurry to finish business before the holidays, the House of Representatives have passed a bill that many in the green industry challenge as being a “bad bill,” for employers. Simultaneously, it was announced recently that the H-2B program has reached its visa cap for the first part of 2005. While seasonal workers who were employed in the U.S. within the last three years do not count against the cap as a result of legislation passed in May, business owners hiring new workers will now have to wait until April to bring those new employees stateside.
BORDER ENFORCEMENT BILL. H.R. Bill 4437, the “Border Protection, Antiterrorism & Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,” was passed on Dec. 16 as an “enforcement-only” bill focused on U.S. border security and flushing out illegal immigrants from the workforce through requirements applied to employers.
The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) and other state and regional associations in the industry have voiced their opposition to the bill and encourage their members, green industry professionals and employers in general to do the same.
As explained by ANLA, H.R. 4437 would require that all employers verify the authenticity their new workers’ Social Security numbers and/or alien authorization documents, either by telephone or over the Internet. A pilot program is underway for the verification system, which would have employers key in workers’ Social Security numbers and then match the number to U.S. Government files. Failure to verify documents could yield fines from $5,000 to $25,000 per worker, depending on the size of the employer and whether the employer had prior violations. Moreover, after six years, employers would be required to verify documents for all of their workers who had not been previously electronically verified. Workers’ whose documents don’t match up would have to be terminated.
While ANLA says it generally supports electronic verification, their opposition stems from the fact that H.R. 4437 includes no provision to replace those workers who would inevitably be terminated due to fraudulent documents. A good bill, the association says, needs to include guest worker immigration reform that would allow employers to bring in new workers legally.
“The bill does nothing to address changes in immigration laws relative to guest worker programs, nor does it say anything about the 8 million illegal workers in the country now other than enforcing employer sanctions, including mandatory electronic verification,” ANLA Executive Director Bob Dolibois tells Lawn & Landscape. “The demand for seasonal labor is so high and the fraudulent papers business so sophisticated that otherwise law-abiding employers end up hiring illegal workers. We recognize that this problem needs to be solved because no ethical employer wants to be in this position. However, this bill puts all of the burden on employers to stop hiring illegal workers without an option for replacing those employees with legal workers.”
Dolobois acknowledges that the House passage of H.R. 4437 is just the first step in the bill becoming law. From here, the U.S. Senate must agree on its own version of the bill, at which point the House and Senate version would go into conference to develop a complete bill for the President to sign into law. A bright spot for employers is that a number of Members of Congress voting for the bill indicated that their support of a conference report was contingent upon the inclusion of guest worker reform. The bill passed 239 to 182 with all but 17 republicans supporting the bill and all but 36 democrats opposing. Among the republicans opposing H.R. 4437 were Doc Hastings (Wash.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), George Radanovich (Calif.), Bill Thomas (Calif.), and John Boehner (Ohio), all of whom have large agricultural districts.
H-2B REFORM PUSHES ON. Also on Dec. 16, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that the first of two H-2B caps had been reached for the 2006 season. As a result of beneficial legislation passed in May, only new H-2B workers are counted against the 66,000-visa cap, which was split into two 33,000-cap sessions for fiscal year 2006.
USCIS has officially received enough applications to meet the first 33,000 cap, though returning workers – those whose visas counted against the cap between Oct. 1, 2002 and Sept. 30, 2005 – may return without counting against the cap. USCIS will continue to accept petitions for new workers with start dates on or after April 1, 2006 as long as such petitions are supported by valid temporary labor certification.
After a few months of relief with the passage of May’s “Save Our Small & Seasonal Businesses Act,” (SOS Act) grassroots organizations are once again encouraging employers to jump on the bandwagon to help develop and support more permanent guest worker reform. Save Small Business, a grassroots organization formed last year and, says current discussion of the bill is to develop language for a long-term or permanent extension of its provisions, which are currently set to expire on Sept. 30, 2006.
“As has been clear throughout our efforts, nothing will happen on Capitol Hill without our hard work again in 2006,” says Hank Lavery, of Save Small Business in a notice to members last week. “As part of the Save Small Business network, each of us needs to be prepared to do everything that we can to extend the SOS Act.”
Save Small Business officially established itself as a non-profit organization this year and will focus solely on the SOS Act and its reform. A dues structure outlined on its Web site will allow the organization to continue to successfully work with the industry and with Congress to bring more beneficial change to employers.
Lawn & Landscape is working to contact members of the green industry for more information on the H-2B situations. Visit Lawn & Landscape Online frequently for updates as they become available.