With Congress deadlocked over immigration reform, lawmakers have proposed some quick fixes to alleviate the labor crunch in the dairy industry, and in agriculture overall. But many farmers and farmworkers say they're small band aids for a big problem.

It’s estimated several thousand mostly Latino immigrants work illegally on dairy farms in New York and Vermont, including hundreds right here in the North Country. They work in the shadows, with little oversight and constant fear of deportation.

Dairy farmers rely heavily on these immigrant workers. They say they can’t find local people to do the hard, dirty work. In lieu of comprehensive immigration reform, some members of Congress are proposing small fixes to help dairy farms hire legal workers.

The first fix is an amendment tacked on to the Homeland Security spending bill in the House. It would allow farms that need workers year-round to use a visa program for seasonal farm workers called H2A. Remember, dairy farms need people to milk the cows all the time.

Dairy farmers say the proposal is a step in the right direction, but hardly the best option. "It’s progress, but we still need to go further," says Steve Ammerman, spokesman for New York’s biggest farm lobbying group, the New York Farm Bureau. He says it’s still not great for dairy because under the amendment, the maximum H2A visa would still be 10 months long. "To bring somebody in, to train them, and then to see them leave again to their home countries, certainly we’d like to see something long term."

Reforming a visa program known for its red tape

Another problem with H2A is it’s notoriously bureaucratic and slow. Visas can get delayed well after the workers are needed in the fields.

Related stories: Lisbon farmer gets pulled into national dispute over work visas North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is co-sponsor of a bill that would transfer the H2A program to the Department of Agriculture, instead of the Department of Labor where "there doesn’t seem to be an understanding of how the ag sector actually works," Stefanik told NCPR in January. "The Department of Agriculture is structured in a way that there is that understanding. It’s inherent in what they do."

But farmworker advocacy groups like the United Farm Workers call these fixes to agriculture’s labor crisis “deeply flawed.” Bruce Goldstein is president of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group based in DC. He says the H2A visa program leaves workers vulnerable to abuses because they can only work for one farm. If it doesn’t work out, they’re sent home. "They will work to the limits of human endurance if the employer demands it," Goldstein says. "They will not complain if they don’t get paid for every hour that they worked."

A temporary fix for a long-term problem

Goldstein says H2A is meant to be for temporary workers. If farms want more year-round workers, he says, they should raise wages. And he says the ag industry shouldn’t be messing with small fixes like changes to H2A. It should be pressing Congress to make real immigration reform. "Instead of lobbying with their political clout and campaign contributions for a new guest workers program," says Goldstein, "agricultural businesses should be asking Congress to allow current undocumented farm workers to be granted a path to immigration status and citizenship."

"We're continuing to beat the drum"

Farmworker Justice supports another bill sponsored by Democrats, the Agricultural Worker Program Act, which would offer legal status to undocumented immigrants currently working on farms in the U.S. Congresswoman Stefanik wouldn't say whether she backs the bill, saying through a spokesman that she is "is reviewing all options with her constituents to ensure that North Country farmers have access to the steady workforce they need to operate."

The Farm Bureau’s Steve Ammerman says keeping the several thousand undocumented workers who are already trained, already working on the state’s dairy farms, is the top goal, not an H2A fix it bill. "We’re continuing to beat the drum for a full program. That’s something that New York Farm Bureau alone has been talking about for years," Ammerman says. "Yes, we’re supportive of this bill, but we’re not putting all our eggs in one basket here. We’re going to push hard for some kind of comprehensive reform package that’s needed for our farmers and farmworkers."

But in this Congress, and with this President, that seems highly unlikely. Many Republicans despise a path to legal status for those who are already in the country illegally. President Trump appears more focused on deporting undocumented immigrants than reforming the system.

So it may be that bandaids to the H2A visa are the best bet to relieving agriculture’s dependency on people who are here illegally to grow your food.