The workers are given visas for the duration of the crop harvest and are then taken back to their country. It is currently the only way farmers can guarantee their workers are legal. Few major growers are using H-2A this season. An estimated 10,000 farm workers need housing for up to two months during the Vidalia onion harvest in 20 counties. Every year, migrant workers, often here illegally, are found living in motel rooms and trailers that are unsafe and lack even basic electrical, plumbing and sanitary needs.
Many farmers provide no on-site housing.
The going rate this year is 70 cents per 50-pound bag of onions a worker clips. These workers are mostly packers and truck drivers. Because the work is seasonal, the money must last them the three months per year, on average, that farm work is unavailable. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's job is to enforce government policy on immigration. It conducts raids when its officials think workers are illegally in the country.