Seasonal migrant workers are a necessity for farmers across Michigan who spend most of the year tending to the ground and about five months picking the fruits of their labour. A lot of fruit crops need to be handled and harvested at the right time, or else growers risk them turning to mush.
Leitz tends to 700 acres of apples, cucumbers, cantaloupe, blueberries and — his biggest crop — tomatoes, alongside his three brothers. Over time at the Sodus farm, he and his family began to notice a decrease in the number of workers who returned for each harvest.
The problem became so bad in 2013, Leitz said they left about 25 percent of the harvest in the field because it couldn't be picked fast enough.
"The produce just rots in the field if we don't get enough help," Leitz told The Herald-Palladium. "In 2013, we had very good markets, good quality and good quantity in the field. That's the trifecta that every farmer wants. Unfortunately, we had to cut our acreage back. It takes a lot to grow an acre of cucumbers. You get into the $4,000- to $6,000-per-acre range to pick anything."
Fearing the worst, Leitz began to apply for H-2A temporary agricultural workers in 2015.
Under the federal H-2A program, farmers are required to advertise in local newspapers for job openings before accepting foreign workers. Farmers must pay for transportation to and from the foreign country, and provide housing and meals.
The H-2A program was created in the 1990s to help agricultural employers bring temporary foreign workers into the United States to do seasonal work that domestic workers could not or were not willing to do. The H-2A visa holders live and work in the U.S. for several months at a time — but they are not considered immigrants — and the program is not seen as a pathway to citizenship.
There are no limitations on the number of temporary workers that may be admitted into the U.S. However, the program can prove costly to farmers.
Growers must also agree to pay a specified wage. In Michigan, it's set at $12.75 an hour for 2017. When all expenses are figured in, Leitz estimates workers cost about $17 an hour.
"It's alleviated our labour issue," Leitz said. "But it's a program of last resort."
So far this year, nearly 6,000 agricultural visas have been approved for Michigan farmers —which is more than four times the amount approved in 2014, and more than 10 times the number in 2013.
Despite the rise in interest, farmers claim the H-2A program is inconvenient and expensive. It's also been criticised for being easy to abuse. In some reported instances, employers have been said to be lax on safety measures and steal wages while facing little backlash.
However, those familiar with the visa program describe it as the industry's only legal option for getting temporary farm work done.
Leitz Farms usually applies for about 150 H-2A workers. They still get domestic workers that have been coming for years, whether they are local or migrant. All in all, Leitz said they have more than 200 people tending to the 700 acres in different jobs from picking to packaging.
His least favourite part is going through paperwork. Despite a reprieve from ICE, the Department of Labour can stop by anytime to go through the farm's paperwork.
In his first year with the program — about six weeks in — Leitz said six federal officers visited to view paperwork and housing, and interview people in the fields.
After two days, they left with no issues. But it was still nerve-racking partway through harvest, Leitz said.
"They do that with all H-2A growers. They say they don't pick on the H-2A program, but they do," Leitz said. "You can guarantee yourself a Department of Labor audit. I've had three of them in my lifetime without having used the program. But that's because we're a large employer that sticks out."
Money can be a frustrating factor for growers in the program. In addition to paying for the workers' visas, farmers must also account for their transportation, housing, sustenance and an hourly wage.
Despite these unforeseen expenses that come with the program, Leitz said H-2A is picking up steam in southwest Michigan. He said he gets one or two calls a week from growers in the state — and sometimes in other parts of the country.
"I like everything but the $12.75 an hour," Leitz said, referencing the adverse effect wage rate. "I have to compete with Canada and Mexico. They work here in a week and make as much as that in three months in Mexico. The amount of produce coming into the U.S. has tripled in the last 15 years and it's put a lot of growers in the U.S. out of business."
In the end though, Leitz is thankful for the program, and believes that without it that his farm would already be close to out of business.
