NYT: H-2A a "cheap shot at workers"

From the New York Times, a (surprise) editorial critical of Bush Administration revamping of the H-2A guest worker program. From the piece called A cheap shot at workers:

No one expects that the H-2A overhaul will be enough to get most growers to stop hiring illegal immigrants, who work desperately hard for rock-bottom wages. The shortage of farm labor is too great. But by weakening protections for legal workers, the changes would invite abuse and make a flawed program worse.

This new plan harks back to the shameful days of the bracero program of the 1940’s to the 60’s, when Mexicans were recruited into brutal serfdom in the United States. Abuses within today’s H-2A program are rampant; advocacy groups like Farmworker Justice routinely document examples of workers who, chained to their employers and unprotected by the government, submit to abusive conditions, wage theft and other exploitation.

There is a better long-term solution. It’s AgJobs, a federal bill that died with previous efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. It would give undocumented farmworkers a chance to legalize and the right to change jobs, a crucial means of discouraging abuse by employers. Its goal is to bolster workers’ rights and build a more productive, stable work force. AgJobs isn’t perfect, but it was born from long negotiations among growers and workers’ advocates — a compromise that the Bush administration’s plans could blow apart.