Labor Dept. Halts Surveys of Farm Workers

By LIBBY QUAID
Jan 24, 7:27 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Labor Department has decided to quit collecting data on
migrant farm workers even as its reports showed the share of illegal immigrants
holding those jobs grew from 7 percent to more than 50 percent in just a decade.

The information is part of a survey that is the sole authority on the work and
living conditions of farm workers in the United States. The National
Agricultural Workers Study affects immigration and guest worker policies and
influences government programs that help the workers and their families.

A Labor Department official described the decision to quit collecting data as a
"temporary pause."

"We have every intention of moving forward with the NAWS study; the question is
where to house the NAWS study," said Veronica Stidvent, the Labor Department's
assistant secretary for policy.

The company that conducts worker surveys for the department, Burlingame,
Calif.-based Aguirre International, received a "stop work" order that was
effective Jan. 14, director of operations Ron Rodgers said.

Rodgers said the company has surveyed farm workers for the Labor Department
since the study was begun in 1988.

Stidvent said labor officials are talking about the survey with a number of
other government agencies that use it. She said the Labor Department will
continue work on two upcoming reports for which surveys have already been done.

Advocates of farm workers were worried the study would cease altogether, since
surveys were halted without a new agency to sponsor the work.

"Migrant farm workers deserve to know what decision has been made," said Bruce
Goldstein, co-executive director of the Farmworker Justice Fund. "That decision
should be made public, and it should be made clearly."

Goldstein referred to immigration reform proposals being discussed in Congress.

"We need to know how many undocumented workers there are, if we're going to talk
about immigration policy changes," he said. "This is the only survey that does a
decent job of examining the immigration status of farm workers."

He mentioned survey findings that about 7 percent of farm workers in 1989 were
illegal immigrants; in 2000, 52 percent were illegal immigrants.

Without the knowledge the survey provides, said Arturo Rodriguez, president of
United Farm Workers of America, "you can't deal with education programs for
children or develop service programs that are going to be helpful to parents."

Both groups maintain that very little is known about the workers in the nation's
agriculture industry.

It's difficult to pin down the number of farm workers; some estimates place it
at 2.5 million.

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On the Net:

Labor Department National Agricultural Workers Study:
http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/agworker/naws.htm