WASHINGTON, DC – The American Farm Bureau Federation asked the Biden administration to exempt farm labor from its recent proclamation suspending travel from several countries due to COVID-19 concerns. The ban includes guest workers from South Africa.
The State Department agreed last week to give H-2A workers from South Africa an exemption from the U.S. travel ban taking effect on Saturday.
The national interest exemption will also apply to some H-2B visa holders who work in food processing and other areas of the food supply chain. The travel ban is intended to curb the spread of a COVID-19 strain that was found in South Africa.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske, AFBF President Zippy Duvall wrote, “The most recent available data indicates that approximately 5,000 of these valued essential workers originate from South Africa. Many of these South African H-2A workers have a unique skillset, and American farmers are counting on their timely arrival as they make plans for their upcoming growing seasons.”
North Dakota’s H-2A workers, for example, are mostly from South Africa, steadily have increased from 1,500 in 2017 to 1,700 in 2018, according to the North Dakota Commerce,
The letter asked that griculture workers to be exempted from the proclamation under Section 2(B)(xii), which allows the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to allow non-citizens from restricted countries to travel to the United States if it is in the national interest. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency designated food and agriculture workers as essential during the pandemic.
“While protecting our nation from new strains of COVID-19 is critically important, it is in our national interest to ensure production of food, fuel, and fiber,” the letter states. Â “While AFBF remains committed to reducing the spread of COVID-19, farmers, H-2A workers, the Department of Homeland Security, and State Department can work together to allow workers taking appropriate health and safety precautions to travel to the United States.”
