No more sweet corn?

— A little more than 75,000 workers come to the U.S. on H-2A visas, though up to an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants work on U.S. farms. As area farmers deal with the need for labor, they are also confronted with housing issues for temporary workers —

OLATHE — The supply of nationally distributed Olathe sweet corn could fall this year as farmers confront bureaucratic blockages of their labor force.

Congress’ inactivity concerning the immigration issue has required farmers to scramble to find housing for temporary workers when they didn’t have to previously.

“My theory is that if there’s a good year to quit the sweet corn program, this is the year — because commodity prices are good, people have options,” said Tuxedo Corn Company owner John Harold, 67, before the Olathe Chamber of Commerce.

“The problem with that is if we stop sweet corn now it will probably never start again. Once we leave that scene there’s no coming back.”

He said the sweet corn industry brings about $11 million to the Uncompahgre Valley each year.

Last year, his company produced about 500,000 boxes of sweet corn, each packed with 48 ears, for distribution from Alaska to Virginia. Most of his workers came from Mexico on H-2B visas through a returning workers program authorized by Congress in May 2005. That legislation expired last September.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said Tuesday that this program was one of many to expire following the failed passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

“They weren’t renewed because the immigration debate ended up getting so hot and so controversial that anything that related to immigration essentially died,” Salazar said.

Corn takes visas

Harold’s corn is graded at the highest level — U.S. Fancy. He said he must have workers to harvest it because machines bruise the ears, staining the kernels enough for the product to lose its high grade.

For 2007, Harold requested 95 workers on the H-2B returning worker program. Olathe Corn Company owner John Fishering requested 44 using the same program, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

For 2008, the cap of 66,000 workers nationwide was reached within the first week of January, leaving businesses in need of workers later in the year out in the cold.

“Given the demand for workers by the ski industry, large ski resorts filed so many visa requests that the cap was reached before landscape firms and other summer seasonal industries could file visa requests,” said CDLE spokesman Bill Thoennes in an e-mail.

Without the returning worker program, seasonal employers who counted on the same set of workers the past few years were left with limited options. U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., has made repeated efforts to revive the program with a five-year extension to help Maryland’s and Virginia’s seafood and cannery industries. To date, none have passed.

Although the H-2B visa is intended for nonagricultural work, Harold said the nature of the laborers’ work in the loading, sorting and packing of the product allowed him to legally bring them in under this visa.

Without the H-2B-R visas (for returning workers), the farmers must either bring in workers on H-2A agriculture visas or find workers within the U.S. borders. The employers are required by federal law to advertise for local labor before importing. Harold said he’s tried unsuccessfully for the past seven years to recruit local labor.

“They’ve always started and nobody’s ever finished,” Harold said.

In 2007, he requested 12 workers on H-2A visas. All workers he brings in this year will likely be on this type of visa.

“It’s more expensive,” he said. “We have to pay their visa fees, transportation, housing, transportation (to Western Colorado). We understand that. We are willing to do that.”

Harold said he’s considering the option of building a dormitory for about $250,000 to house about 48 workers on the H-2A visas; this would be about half the labor he would need. He said he already has enough housing for 14, and that he could use two crews instead of three. 

Mountain Fresh Sweet Corn owner Mike Ahlberg requested 35 workers on H-2A visas in 2007. He rented housing for them in Delta after some difficulty.

“People are very reluctant to rent it to you for just three months. They want a year at a time type thing,” Ahlberg said.

He rented four houses from June 1 to the end of September. They were vacant for the first month to allow for an inspector to come out and ensure they were up to federal standards. He also had to pay for them to be vacant the second half of September, as the work had ended, Ahlberg said.

Vacancies untouched

As Olathe’s sweet corn farmers scramble to find federally suitable housing for their seasonal employees, the Olathe farm dormitory — funded in part by the federal government — sits north of Olathe off of Highway 50 nearly half full.

Mary Strohm, who has managed the dorm for five years, said Friday that between 25 and 30 of the dorm’s 72 beds were in use. Most if not all of its occupants were homeless before coming to the dorm. Strohm said the dorm functions to get these people back on their feet, as they’re required to be employed within 30 days.

She said the contracts require them to leave if migrant workers come to the dorm in need of a place to stay.

“There is a clause,” she said. “It is there for the migrant (workers) and they are first priority.”

Occupants, regardless of origin, pay a percentage of their wages for rent.

The dorm was opened in 1993, built with finances from the Rural Development Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Much to the dismay of local agriculture today, Title V of the federal Housing Act of 1949 requires that its residents be U.S. citizens or “persons legally admitted for permanent residence.”

Local leaders and farmers have tried for the last three years to have “permanent” removed from the act’s wording.

Montrose County Housing Authority director Tim Heavers said he’s sent letters to both current U.S. Senators, the Colorado Division of Housing, the USDA and other authorities. He said he received a response from U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard citing that the dorm couldn’t house H-2A workers.

“All we want to do is eliminate one word from that statute,” Heavers said. “At least they didn’t try to sneak into the country — they applied for a visa and came as temporary workers.”

The added pressure for sweet corn farmers to find federally approved housing coupled with local leaders’ desire to fill the dorm’s vacancies have led to a greater push for some sort of amendment, variance or even executive order.

The dorm regulations require rent be deducted from occupants’ pay, so people don’t stay for free.

“To me it’s a no-brainer,” said Montrose Mayor David White. “The bottom line is, from a business standpoint — jeez already — let’s use it for what it was intended to be used for.”

Olathe Trustee Bob Lindstrom said he is 100 percent behind making the dorm accessible to workers on visas.

“It’s the economics of this area,” he said. “I don’t think it should be used for anything else.”

At one time, it was proposed to change the dorm to a community corrections facility, but the idea was abandoned because of feasibility issues.

Local effort for national action

In early February the U.S. Department of Labor proposed rules to “modernize the broken” H-2A program.

“This issue must be addressed now, or our country will see eroding competitiveness in its agricultural sector, crops being left to rot in the fields, and increasing shifting of domestic food production to overseas,” Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said in a press release.

The proposed changes include a system to calculate wages for the workers, require an extension of time employers must advertise for domestic workers and centralize the application process under the federal government. They could be enacted without congressional action following a 45-day period for public comment.

Locally, a resolution supporting federal government action to “ease the restrictions and bureaucracy of guest worker visa programs in a manner that is consistent with national security” and allow for removal of “permanent” from the 1949 Housing Act is being presented to organizations and governmental entities.

Harold said the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users and Olathe Chamber of Commerce approved it; the Delta-Montrose Electric Association is expected to vote on it Tuesday and it will be presented soon to Delta City Council.

Montrose City Councilor Noelle Hagan said it has been approved by Montrose Economic Development Corporation and will be presented to the Olathe Board of Trustees Monday. She presented the resolution to her council last Thursday, but it was not approved. She and Mayor White voted ‘aye,’ but Councilors Jose Abeyta and Ed Ulibarri cast dissenting votes.

“I think it needs to be taken out of the agriculture arena, if you may, because even as it is, if they do authorize the usage during summer then that facility’s going to remain vacant during the winter months,” Abeyta said Friday.

“I think they’d be better off to do a co-op and build it themselves, because then they’d have better control.”

White said he and Hagan will send letters of support instead. The signed resolutions and letters of support will be collected and sent to legislators in early March with the hope they will lead to change soon.

When Salazar was in Montrose, he said he doesn’t expect comprehensive immigration reform for perhaps a couple more years, as the change in president and higher priorities will likely come first.

Salazar communications director Cody Wertz said Friday:

“The senator does want to find out from the community what their consensus is on how the community wants to utilize the dormitory.”

Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com