President Donald Trump had them \u2013 then he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Speaking to an appreciative crowd in Michigan<\/a> last weekend, Trump got thunderous ovations for his repeated pledge to protect U.S. jobs. Then, turning to agriculture, he declared, \u201cWe have to let people come in<\/strong>.<\/strong> They\u2019re going to be guest workers, they\u2019re going to work on your farms.\u201d<\/p>\n The adoring audience went limp. The cheers faded amid confusion.<\/p>\n Touting H-2B visas<\/a> (for unskilled non-farm workers) when he meant to say H-2A visas<\/a> (agricultural workers), Trump muddied the U.S. labor picture and threatened to throw more Americans under the migrant-worker bus.<\/p>\n Though H-2A visas are up 20 percent<\/a> from a year ago, ag industry lobbyists demand still more cheap farm hands. Now the administration appears ready to double down on a system that\u2019s already crassly manipulated.<\/p>\n The H-2A program ostensibly requires the Department of Labor to certify that “employment of H-2A aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.\u201d Yet the ag industry can and does hire H-2A migrants because it\u2019s cheaper than offering competitive wages to Americans.<\/p>\n For starters, employers reap a 7.65 percent discount because payroll taxes are waived for foreign workers. Larger savings come from the payroll itself. Unburdened by having to negotiate wages with American workers, farms use H-2A\u2019s exclusive provisions to shackle laborers.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, abuses, including inhumane working conditions<\/a>, crop up perennially. Little wonder that bottom-feeding operations say they can\u2019t find U.S. workers.<\/p>\n In fact, millions of unskilled and low-skilled American citizens are either unemployed or underemployed. Among rural Americans who are working, wages are flat or falling, due in part to the ever-growing influx of foreign labor sponsored by Washington and the Big Ag lobby<\/a>.<\/p>\n By offering better pay and humane working conditions, U.S. farm operators wouldn\u2019t have to import tens of thousands of laborers \u2013 and the consumer costs would be negligible<\/a>.<\/p>\n If prices for produce were raised by a penny or two per pound \u2013- and the increase went to the people who did the harvesting \u2013 wages could rise by 20 percent or more.<\/p>\n That virtuous cycle would make farm work great again.