Tighter employee eligibility monitoring hurts Michigan economy

Talk about working at cross purposes: As Michigan farmers try to find enough labor to get crops planted and harvested this year, DHS has increased its immigration control activities, which could cause significant disruption in Michigan’s second and third largest industries, agriculture and tourism, according to Craig Anderson, manager of the Regulatory Compliance Assistance Program at Michigan Farm Bureau. “The recent immigration activities that have detained farm workers and others are not ‘raids’ in the traditional sense where the former Border Patrol would enter an area, surround a farm or other business, and remove all workers without proper documentation,” Anderson told the Michigan Farm News. “Activities in the Thumb and western Michigan have their roots in two national programs and a developing relationship between local law enforcement and the DHS. The first program is the National Fugitive Operations Program. Under this program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses multiple resources for criminal apprehensions. The highest priority is placed on those fugitives who have been convicted of crimes.”

The second national program, Anderson said, is the Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, in operation in Detroit and Chicago. The program builds on existing partnerships to bring investigators together from a variety of agencies with expertise in different aspects of document and benefit fraud. “While direct access to Social Security Administration (SSA) records is not allowed,” Anderson said, “ICE has access to match SSA’s records. And the SSA has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to participate in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. The program allows ICE to determine ‘match’ information form SSA.”

Raid or not, the ultimate effect is loss of workforce. Not only does the employer lose workers directly to the enforcement, but also family members of those workers and other workers, regardless of their actual status, for fear of additional enforcement activities. “In the Grand Traverse area, shortly after the removal of fewer than 10 workers, reports surfaced from at least a dozen farm operations that 50 percent to 80 percent of their current workforce left the area,” Anderson said. Note that neither the SSA number verification system or the DHS pilot program specifically states the person is authorized to work. The only way to “guarantee” legal workers is to enter the H2A guest worker program where the American Consulate establishes the individual’s status and issues a Visa. Most jobs on dairy operations, however, are not eligible for H2A status because they are not “seasonal.”

As the border continues to tighten, Anderson said, the U.S. economy (other than Michigan) continues to be strong. “But traditional farm worker families, who may have a member who is not authorized, are fearful of traveling,” Anderson said. “And the H2A program is complicated, expensive, subject to litigation and now seeing significant delays in processing workers at American Consulates. Immigration reform is absolutely essential.” The bottom line for farmers, Anderson said, is to pay very close attention to detail when it comes to filling out complete I-9 forms. “This isn’t a case of the job not being done until the paperwork is done,” he said. “In this case, the best way to go is to start with the paperwork. It will save a lot of headaches afterward.”