Immigration policies and labor needs: A look at the growing reliance on H

Blaine Smith is a second-generation orchardist who grows cherries, pears and apples in Monitor, Washington, a small unincorporated town full of orchards. He relies on both domestic employees and H-2A guest workers to bring in the harvest.

Smith said labor has been tight this year, and said he needs every worker he can get. Growers and farmworkers alike worry that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could disrupt the harvest, he said.

“I think everybody has been afraid of what’s going on with ICE. We’re afraid, too, that we won’t have pickers, and people won’t travel. Usually we have a lot of migrants that come up from California. We all have been afraid they won’t show up,” Smith said.

As immigration policies change, farmers are turning to a guest worker program known as the H-2A visa p