An Analysis of the H-2A Agricultural Guest Worker Program and Recommendations for Future Policy

The majority of the people who make up the United States' seasonal agricultural workforce are nonimmigrant Mexican citizens. Immigration policies such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the H-2A agricultural guest worker program were meant to encourage growers to employ legal labor workforces. A study of the laws and practices that eventually resulted in the H-2A program shows how and why the demographics are predominantly Mexican. In addition, such study is revealing as t...