Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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go towards housing, food, and other miscellaneous expenses, temporary status in the
community increases the likelihood that a majority of that income will be spent outside of
the region. 706
The H-2A visa program is a national attempt to fill labor shortages in the agricultural
sector by allowing temporary entry for foreign workers. Recent estimates show that there
are more than 9,000 migrant workers in the state of Colorado – only a small fraction of
which hold H-2A visas – and 50-75 percent of the workforce is believed to have
“questionable documentation.” 707 In 2007, 237 Colorado employers submitted 1,953 H-
2A worker requests; all but 28 were approved. Operators who have participated in the H-
2A program have cited significant problems with the process, however, including: 708
! Slow processing of requests (averaging 168 days as of 2009)
! Increased costs (one operator reported an annual $2,400 application fee, $300
per worker for visas and security certification, $160 in round-trip transportation,
and an hourly wage of $8.64 vs. the previous wage of just over $7.00)
! Complicated applications
Colorado House Bill 1325 was signed in 2008 in an attempt to address some of these
issues and expedite the H-2A application process. The goal of the bill is to reduce
processing time to less than 60 days by hiring recruiters in Mexico to attract workers and
help process paper work, ultimately promoting a legal route to working in the state of
Colorado. Despite previous attempts at encouraging legalized work through temporary
work programs, the population of illegal immigrants has continued to rise throughout the
nation. HB 1325 is not expected to have a significant impact on curbing the illegal
immigrant population, however, it is expected to help fill the labor gap in Colorado’s
agricultural sector. 709
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