Hal Netkin is an E-Verify designated agent in Sierra Vista.

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U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva says that farmers in Yuma are not planting sections of their fields out of fear that they won't have enough workers to harvest the crops. As a solution to this problem, Grijalva supports legislation by state Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, and state Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, who represent agriculture-heavy districts, to create a state-sponsored guest-worker program.

But why are these politicians and farmers opting for an Arizona guest-worker program when the federal government already has on?. It's called the H-2A visa program designed for U.S. companies hiring foreign workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature.

The program has a number of benefits for employers, most notably the assurance of a legal, documented work force and the reduction of labor turnover with the resulting loss in productivity. No restrictions are made on the number of H-2A workers that are admitted yearly.

So why don't Arizona farmers like the program?

Maybe it's because they don't like the H-2A visa requirements intended to protect workers from exploitive working conditions. Or they don't like having to pay the same wages as comparable U.S. workers would have to be paid as determined by the Department of Labor.

Or they don't like having to provide the worker with an earnings statement detailing the worker's total earnings, the hours of work offered and the hours actually worked. Or they don't like having to provide housing to all H-2A workers, which must be inspected by the Department of Labor to assure minimum federal standards.

Or they don't like having to provide transportation to and from the worker's temporary home as well as transportation to the next work place when the contract is fulfilled. Or they don't like having to provide meals or facilities in which the workers can prepare food. Or they don't like having to provide worker's compensation insurance. Or they don't like having to provide health insurance. Or they don't like the messy red tape.

If farmers had to comply with the federally mandated requirements, it would defeat the advantages of hiring cheap illegal immigrant labor in the first place. What farmers really want is to legalize the on-demand hiring of the same cheap labor they have always hired, with the taxpayers footing the bill for workers' benefits.

So why don't some politicians like Grijalva push for the H-2A visa program? Could it be that they want "temporary" to really be "permanent" — advocating that in return for the "cheap" lettuce produced, temporary workers and their families deserve a path to permanent U.S. citizenship?

What is certain is that neither the farmers nor the politicians are really interested in what is good for America — and Arizona is in America.