Employers working for immigration law reform

FORT COLLINS – Gary Epstein, owner of Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery, wants to do the right thing when it comes to employing seasonal workers.

A regional supplier of drought-tolerant and specialty plants to customers as far away as California, Epstein depends on a seasonal staff of more than 20 temporary workers, and over the years many of those have been migrants.

“Americans are willing to do some of the jobs, but there are some jobs that are very physically demanding and repetitive,” he said. “When I put Americans in those jobs they start looking for other jobs after a few weeks. The people in the guest worker program want the money and want to do it.”

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But it’s getting harder to find those workers, Epstein said, with the ongoing controversy about illegal immigration and the federal and state government’s recent crackdown on employers who hire illegals.

“I want to be legal, but without some kind of immigration reform it’s going to be difficult,” he said.

That’s why Epstein supports a new group called Colorado Employers for Immigration Reform, which is working to persuade the state’s Congressional delegation to help devise a better national immigration policy.

Employers in the landscaping, construction, restaurant, lodging and agricultural sectors in particular have been finding it harder and harder to hire enough workers for their industries.

And that’s having an effect on their financial bottom line. “The economic impact for just my small company could be pretty devastating,” Epstein said. “I’m supportive of secure borders and opposed to illegal immigration, but legal immigration is absolutely necessary to the survival of the country.”

Group has three goals

Kristin Fefes, executive director of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Colorado, said her organization and several others banded together to form CEIR earlier this month. Similar groups have also started in Texas, Arizona and other states.

Fefes said the group’s primary goals are overhaul of the federal H2-A and H2-B visa programs and creation of a year-round guest worker program.

H2-A visas are specifically for agricultural workers, but Fefes said the program needs reform because “it’s become a very cumbersome thing for employers.” The H2-B program provides a limited number of visas to seasonal workers, but Fefes notes that is currently limited to 66,000 nationally – far too few to perform the jobs that Americans generally won’t do.

Most important is a reformed and expanded program for year-round guest workers, now limited to 5,000 across the nation.

“We need a guest-worker program for people who can come out of the shadows and register and become legal citizens,” she said.

There are an estimated 12 million people now in the United States working in construction, agriculture and other industries who are not legal residents but who perform jobs needed by employers.

“We absolutely need guest workers, because in industries like landscaping and construction and hotels the positions are just not being filled by U.S. workers,” she said. “The demand hasn’t gone down. People still want their lawns mowed and their crops picked.”

CEIR’s membership includes the American Subcontractors Association of Colorado, the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association, the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association and the Colorado Restaurant Association.

After months of private negotiations in Congress, a compromise plan between Democrats and Republicans aimed at reforming the nation’s immigration policy was announced on May 17 and scheduled for Senate debate.

If approved by the Senate and House, the plan would create a path to permanent legal residence for undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. and allow more guest workers to come into the country and stay for two years before having to return home. Those workers could renew their visas for a total of six years.

Fefes said she hopes the plan may help resolve the growing need for guest workers. “Movement on a bill is critical to Colorado employers who rely on these workers,” she said. “But the devil’s in the details and there’s a lot to be worked out.”