So, the Labor Department went through the legally required process to reform the rules. The goal: Farmers can hire temporary workers when no U.S. workers are available and when the foreign workers are appropriately protected. The new rule established enhanced penalties for violations and new tools to ensure compliance, including audits and substantial fines - up to $100,000 for serious injury or death of a worker. The prior rule had a maximum fine of $1,000 - essentially a large speeding ticket for potentially killing someone. Then-Rep. Hilda L. Solis, California Democrat, along with the Food and Commercial Workers Union and a public interest group known as Farmworker Justice, opposed these regulations on various grounds - arguing instead for legislation called AgJobs. Farmworker Justice, in fact, sued and lost an emergency attempt to stop the Labor Department's H-2A reforms in federal court in January.

AgJobs is cynical and arguably anti-American. It legalizes illegal workers after a small fine of a few hundred dollars. Anyone who worked five months in agriculture in the prior two years is eligible for legalization, including those facing judicial deportation orders. That would mean 600,000 to 800,000 new permanent U.S. residents plus their families - many of whom probably have a limited education, speak little English and may not even be immunized against communicable diseases. AgJobs also makes these workers less well-off financially by arbitrarily slashing their wages across the board.