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DHS reported that 15,600 H-2A workers were admitted in FY02, down sharply from 27,700 in FY01, while the number of H-2B worker admissions jumped to 87,000 from 72,400. Between 1991 and 1997, the number of admissions under both H-2A and H-2B trended downward, from 20,000 to about 10,000 a year and then rose sharply to over 30,000 in 1999. H-2B admissions continued rising, but H-2A admissions began to fall from their peak of 33,300 in 2000.

The sharp drop in the number of H-2A admissions may reflect the shifting of H-2A workers from one US job to another. Generally, the State Department issues fewer visas to H-2A workers than are admitted by INS-BCIS because some individuals may be admitted several times in one year and some H-2A workers can enter and leave the US with the same visa over several years. The increase in H-2B admissions may reflect the activities of brokers advising employers of the "easy" availability of legal foreign workers.

The jobs filled by H-2A and H-2B workers must be temporary, which is not defined in H-2A regulations but has four definitions in H-2B: temporary peak load jobs, the reason most often cited by H-2B employers; seasonal need, second most cited; and less often cited intermittent or one-time need. The industries in which H-2B workers are most often employed, landscaping, forestry, house keeping, stable attending and construction, have developed employment structures that involve temporary jobs.

The largest group of H-2A workers harvest tobacco in North Carolina; 9,000 are brought to the state by the North Carolina Growers Association. In September 2003, the Mexican government said it would look into allegations that H-2As there are discouraged from filing workers compensation claims and blacklisted from returning if they talk to worker advocates.

In 1950, Senator Patrick McCarran of Nevada persuaded Congress to approve the "sheepherder bills" that allowed then mostly Basques to enter the US as shepherds and, after fulfilling a three-year contract, to become immigrants. In 1960, the Western Range Association was established to recruit foreign shepherds, and 95 percent of the 5,500 foreign shepherds it brought to the US by 1970 were Basques who were paid $200 to $300 a month.

During the 1970s, the Basques were replaced by South Americans. Today, most of the 2,100 H-2A shepherds today are from Peru, plus a few from Chile, Mexico and Mongolia. Each shepherd cares for a flock of 750 to 1,250 sheep between April and October, and takes the flock to the ranch from November to March for lambing and shearing. Most H-2A shepherds earn $1,200 a month in California, and $750 a month in other western states.

Agri-labor http://agrilabor.org/), a division of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc, is seeking to have 200 Thai workers admitted under the H-2A program to fill farm jobs in the Bakersfield area between August 2003 and April 2004. Although most of the workers are employed under piece rates, they are guaranteed the AEWR of $8.44 an hour. Ebony Williams of Agri-labor, which imported Thais in 2002 to pick chili peppers in Arizona and fruit in Hawaii, says Thai workers cost $18,048 a year, including wages, housing, transportation, visas and other costs.

H-2B. The H-2B program allows US employers to request foreign workers to fill seasonal nonfarm jobs after labor market tests, usually ads in local papers for three days, fail to find them. Most employers use one of the many brokers that charge $150 to $750 per worker; they include Mid-Atlantic Resource Association, Foley Enterprises and Amigos. The average request is for 10 H-1B visas in gardening.

Lawn and Landscape Magazine in July 2003 warned gardening companies against some brokers of H-2B workers, warning them not to accept workers from brokers who offer the employer money to hire them, and to be wary of offers of "skilled, English-speaking workers ... with driver's licenses who will work for $6 per hour and be happy with no more than 40 hours per week," and be willing to pay $50 a week for housing.

Braceros. Mexico had a registration program, Bracero Net, between April 7 and October 15, 2003 for ex-Braceros owed forced savings from the 1940s. Between 1942 and 1947, 10 percent of Bracero workers' earnings were deducted and forwarded by Wells Fargo to Mexican banks to be returned to Braceros; many of the Braceros complained that their forced savings were not returned. The Mexican Interior Ministry says that workers with individual work contracts, alien laborer identification cards (brown micas) and current voter identification card from the 1940s could receive an initial payment of 1,500 pesos ($150), and then 200 pesos a month for a total of up to 60,000 pesos.

Braceros were always a minority of the farm work force, even in the southwestern states. In May 1960, California had 127,800 domestic seasonal farm workers and 47,900 Braceros.

Lisa Aleman-Padilla, "Fresno remembers laborers," Fresno Bee, September 29, 2003. Karlayne R. Parker, "Company Wants To Import Laborers," Tampa Tribune, August 9, 2003.