labor strikes by threatening to replace striking workers with
Mexican participants in the Bracero Program. From the end
of the program in the mid-1960s through the 1970s, most
farm workers were U.S. citizens. In 1965, farm labor leaders such as Cesar Chavez organized boycotts of goods produced by growers that did not cooperate with farm worker
organizations. Most growers were not directly affected by
farm worker unions, but many raised their wage rates to
discourage unionization; during the 1970s, farm worker pay
was raised well above the federal minimum wage.7
But the golden age didn’t last. Beginning in the early
1980s, economic crises in Mexico caused a surge in immigrant farm workers in the United States. The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program was created in 1986, partly as a response to the increasing numbers of unauthorized
farm workers. Today, H-2A remains the only legal means of
employing foreign agricultural workers. But it is unpopular
with both growers and farm worker advocates. Growers say
it is too cumbersome to meet the needs of seasonal agriculture, while advocates say that its worker-protection provisions are not enforced effectively.
The H-2A program places no numerical limit on guest
workers, but few growers have used it. Nevertheless, H-2A
has been growing in recent years; more growers are using
this legal channel in response to the pressure created by
more aggressive immigration enforcement.8
Laura Elizabeth Pohl
November 1986:
Immigration Reform and
Control Act (IRCA) divides
the H-2 program into the
H-2A agricultural program
and the H-2B non-agricultural
program. The vast majority
of H-2A workers are recruited
from Mexico.
2011
2011:
In response to immigration
enforcement pressures, the
H-2A program increases
to almost 100,000 certified
jobs annually, 10 percent of
all long-season farm jobs.
www.bread.org
of the most hazardous occupations in the United States.17
Workers face exposur