U.S. agriculture remains focused on labor shortages amid COVID-19 as the U.S. State Department shut down processing of new H-2A visa requests in Mexico.
The agency said it would continue to process requests from those considered to be “returning” workers – those that have had H-2A visas previously. However, it is not clear how many H-2A applicants fall under that category.
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) held a call Wednesday, highlighting the situation.
In 2019, around 35,000 H-2A workers came into the U.S. during the first quarter of the year, AFBF officials said with the number of workers arriving in the second quarter rising – 34% of H-2A workers entered during the second quarter with another 30% in the third quarter.
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