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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – A congressional committee took on part of the nation’s illegal immigration problem Thursday during a hearing on guest worker programs.

A House Judiciary subcommittee heard from witnesses from state agricultural programs in California, Georgia and North Carolina who support the idea of using foreign workers to harvest their crops.

However, almost no one wants them to stay in the United States after they complete their work, which would add to a problem that has created about 12 million illegal immigrants.

“There is no numerical limit to H-2A temporary agricultural work visas, yet half of farm workers remain illegal immigrants,” Lamar Smith, chairman of the subcommittee on immigration policy enforcement, said at the hearing. “Why don’t more growers who have heavy demands for seasonal agricultural labor make use of the program? Well, in 2008, the Department of Labor concluded that the vast majority of growers find the H-2A program so plagued with problems that they avoid using it altogether.”

Farmers’ complaints about the guest worker program include the bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining the visas and the high cost of providing workers with housing, which is required.

A bill pending in Congress would allow states to administer their own version of a visa program that brings in foreign workers for seasonal farm work. The bill also would give permission for some foreigners to work year-round in the United States, but only for limited periods of time, such as two years.

State programs would reduce regulatory barriers and allow more workers to qualify for the visas, according to supporters of the proposal.

The U.S. Labor Department now administers the H-2A program of short-term visas for guest workers.

However, the Labor Department has been criticized for not administering it properly.

About 1 million guest workers reside in the United States while millions of others live in the country illegally.

Critics of the program say it should be expanded so there would not be much need for illegal immigrant workers.

The government could then monitor their presence and get them to leave the United States peacefully when their visas expire.

The alternative requires turning the borders into armed camps and forcibly deporting illegal immigrants who return within a few weeks.

“America needs an agricultural guest worker program that is fair to everyone it impacts – American growers, farm workers, consumers and guest workers,” Smith said. “The program must provide growers who want to do the right thing with a reliable source of legal labor. It must protect the livelihoods of American workers and the rights of guest workers. And it must keep in mind the pocketbooks of American families.”

The current guest worker program does not meet those goals, according to witnesses at the hearing Thursday.

Gary W. Black, a Georgia Department of Agriculture commissioner, said Georgia’s farmers who did not hire illegal immigrants experienced a labor shortage under the Labor Department’s guest worker program.

The Georgia Agriculture Department did a study last year that showed 26 percent of its farmers suffered a loss of income because of a labor shortage despite a high unemployment rate nationwide. The problems were most severe in the fruit and vegetable industries.

“Even with unemployment rates hovering around 10 percent, this task was not as easy as it would seem,” Black said.

He mentioned the case of a Georgia farmer who “had one employee that worked half a day one week and two half days the next week. This employee earned a total of $119. The employee walked off the job and did not return though plenty of work was available. In addition, the employee filed an unemployment claim, and the producer received notification that the employee was eligible for $235 weekly benefits for 17 weeks.”

Foreign workers, such as illegal immigrants, would not be entitled to unemployment insurance benefits.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama said he would make immigration reform a priority of his administration. He mentioned it again during his 2012 State of the Union address.

More recently, Obama admitted during an interview with the Spanish language television station Univision that he has not accomplished his immigration reform goals, which he blamed on obstruction by Republicans in Congress.

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