Migrant Farmworkers Stranded on Mexico Border as Computer Glitch Bars US Entry Alan Bjerga - Bloomberg Business
go to original June 20, 2015

More than 3,000 farm workers seeking temporary immigrant visas are stranded outside the U.S. by a government computer glitch that halted security checks more than a week ago.

Producers in California, the biggest farm state, are losing $500,000 to $1 million a day as harvests slow for crops from berries and melons to cherries, said Tom Nassif, chief executive officer of the Western Growers Association based in Irvine, California.

The backlog of applications from farmworkers has climbed steadily since June 9, when the U.S. stopped granting H-2A guest-worker program visas, Nassif said.

“People are piling up,” said Nassif, whose organization’s members produce half of all U.S. fresh fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, according to the organization. “We don’t know when this is going to end.”

The State Department, which processes applications, is having technical problems with its system and is “working on this problem 24/7,” spokesman Niles Cole said in an e-mail. “We do not expect the system will be online before next week.”

Read the rest at Bloomberg Business

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