The Department of Homeland Security is proposing amendments to its regulations affecting temporary and seasonal agricultural workers within the H-2A nonimmigrant classification and their U.S. employers. This rule proposes to relax the current limitations on the ability of U.S. employers to petition unnamed agricultural workers to come to the United States and include multiple beneficiaries who are outside the United States on one petition. The rule proposes to revise the current limitations on agricultural workers' length of stay including: lengthening the amount of time an agricultural worker may remain in the United States after his or her employment has ended and shortening the time period that an agricultural worker whose H-2A nonimmigrant status has expired must wait before he or she is eligible to obtain H-2A nonimmigrant status again. This rule also proposes to provide for temporary employment authorization to agricultural workers seeking an extension of their H-2A nonimmigrant status through a different U.S. employer, provided that the employer is a registered user of the E- Verify employment eligibility verification program. In addition, the rule proposes to modify the current notification and payment requirements for employers when an alien fails to show up at the start of the employment period, an H-2A employee's employment is terminated, or an H-2A employee absconds from the worksite. To better ensure the integrity of the H-2A program, this rule also proposes to require certain employer attestations, preclude the imposition of fees by employers or recruiters on prospective beneficiaries, preclude reconsideration of certain temporary labor certification denials, and bar H-2A status for nationals of countries consistently refusing or unreasonably denying repatriation of its nationals. These changes are necessary to encourage and facilitate the lawful employment of foreign temporary and seasonal agricultural workers. Finally, this rule proposes to establish a pilot program under which aliens admitted on certain temporary worker visas at a port of entry participating in the program must also depart through a port of entry participating in the program and present designated biographical information, possibly including biometric identifiers, upon departure. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will publish a Notice in the Federal Register designating which temporary workers must participate in the program, which ports of entry are participating in the program, which biographical and/or biometric information would be required, and the format for submission.
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