Unemployment Expected To Rise

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to worsen labor shortages experienced by farms and food processors in the Pacific Northwest. The Capital Press reports the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced March 16 it would suspend routine immigrant and non-immigrant visa services due to COVID-19, potentially cutting off seasonal and migrant agricultural workers through the H-2A visa program. Dan Fazio, CEO of Wafla – formerly the Washington Farm Labor Association – said the USDA is working with the State Department to obtain an emergency designation for H-2A visas, which would allow temporary farmworkers to continue entering the country. Fazio says they have to get people here in May so a harvest can happen in October.