White House Moves to Ease Guest Worker Program

From The New York Times:

The Bush administration announced plans on Wednesday to overhaul the notoriously inefficient federal guest worker program for agriculture, seeking to provide more legal workers to American farmers who now rely primarily on illegal immigrants.

Since legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrant farm workers failed last year in Congress, the administration is now taking action that does not require Congressional approval to streamline the existing guest worker program.

Most farmers have shunned the program, known as H2A for the type of visa the foreign farm workers receive, because it was too cumbersome to meet their fast-moving harvest labor needs.

After Congress last year rejected several immigration bills that President Bush supported, he first sought to move forward on the divisive issue by stepping up enforcement against employers who hire illegal immigrants. Now the administration is seeking to help farm employers hire immigrant workers legally.