Immigration trouble doesn’t fall far from WA apple trees

Berit Anderson

Berit Anderson Jul 5, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Immigration trouble doesn’t fall far from WA apple trees</h1>
                <h2><p>A glitch in the U.S. State Department’s computer system has created a backlog in their system for issuing entry permits for legal migrant farm workers. It could take weeks for the system to get up and running again at full capacity, which has furrowed the brows of many</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/berit-anderson-crosscut-com/">Berit Anderson</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>A glitch in the U.S. State Department’s computer system has created a backlog in their system for issuing entry permits for legal migrant farm workers. It could take weeks for the system to get up and running again at full capacity, which has furrowed the brows of many Northwest farmers, worried about the upcoming apple harvest. The majority of temporary foreign workers have already arrived, Dan Fazio of the Washington Farm Labor Association <a href="http://kuow.org/post/northwest-farmers-worried-about-visa-backup-legal-migrant-workers?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">told KUOW</a>, but up to 2,000 more with contracts to work in Washington are still waiting to cross the border. — E.W.</p>
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A glitch in the U.S. State Department’s computer system has created a backlog in their system for issuing entry permits for legal migrant farm workers. It could take weeks for the system to get up and running again at full capacity, which has furrowed the brows of many Northwest farmers, worried about the upcoming apple harvest. The majority of temporary foreign workers have already arrived, Dan Fazio of the Washington Farm Labor Association told KUOW, but up to 2,000 more with contracts to work in Washington are still waiting to cross the border. — E.W.

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By Berit Anderson

Berit Anderson was Managing Editor at Crosscut, following tech, culture, media and politics. She founded Crosscut's Community Idea Lab.   Previously community manager of the Tribune Company’