Local foes of Army's plan to burn nerve gas persuaded the federal government to change its plans; the job is now done

Craig Williams, local activist, became a national leader.

Headlines around the world Friday announced that the United States had completed destruction of its last chemical weapons, accomplishing a 1997 global treaty's goal of eliminating all declared national stockpiles of such weapons. The final deed was done at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Ky., ending decades of concern in the town of 36,000 and the surrounding rural area about leaks from the 23-square-mile depot and the incinerator that the Army wanted to build to burn nerve gases and other chemical agents.

Residents of the area mounted a campaign that succeeded in getting the plans changed to a chemical neutralization process, which required more billions and more time but eased fears. In 2019 U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell praised the Kentucky Chemical Demilitarization Citizens’ Advisory Commission and the Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board, both co-chaired by local resident and Vietnam veteran Craig Williams. "He said no community has ever had a more effective leader looking out for their interests," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

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“With singular focus and an unwavering drive, Craig poured over literally every document, every detail, and literally every inch of Blue Grass. He became the leading expert,” McConnell said. “Time and again, Craig showed an uncanny ability to find answers nobody wanted him to see.” The story of the efforts by Williams and others is told in a documentary by Ben Evans and the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, "Nerve," which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Environmental Film Festival at Yale University.

Quick hits: Woolly mammoth found in Iowa; rural firefighters get a movie; check out agrivoltaics; Friday's civic games

Audience members at lasts year's Wisconsin Civics Games State
Championship at the State Capitol. (Photo by Julia Hunter, WNA)

The finals are tomorrow! Students from 13 high schools across the Dairy State will compete in the Wisconsin Civics Games state finals.. "Fifteen teams, each comprising up to four students, will face off in head-to-head matchups, answering questions about the state budget, local elections, legislative term limits, quorums, freedom of the press and other civics-related issues," reports Julia Hunter of, whose foundation sponsors the games/ "Each member of the winning team will receive a $2,000 scholarship to a Wisconsin college or university. . . .The games will be broadcast on WisconsinEye, and are expected to begin around 9 a.m. and conclude at approximately 3 p.m. . . . The WNA Foundation launched the Wisconsin Civics Games in 2018 in response to declining civics education and participation."

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"Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat" is a new documentary about rural firefighters. "While the population is increasing, the number of volunteer firefighters is dwindling rapidly," reports Joelle Orem of The Scoop. "John Deere and the National Volunteer Fire Council recognize the deficit and have partnered to educate and recruit volunteer firefighters to the call through the film. . . . The idea for the film came from the rich heritage of community partnership. . . . Farmers and firefighters often work hand in hand to respond to emergency calls for service during snow and thunderstorms. Visit oddhoursfilm.com to watch the teaser."

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Older trees absorb and store carbon, but carbon isn't the only concern with older forests. "More than 60 percent of the trees managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management make up mature or old-growth forest. . . . A first-of-its-kind census shows that the two agencies are stewards of 112.8 million acres of mature and old-growth trees," Marianne Lavelle of Inside Climate News reports. "But it remains to be seen whether those rules will lead to greater protection for mature and old-growth stands on public lands, as some environmentalists have called for, or for more logging, thinning and prescribed burning by the Forest Service to control wildfire, disease and other climate-related threats."

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Does green energy always have to compete with land needs? Maybe not. Some Wisconsin researchers are looking at ways for the two have a more symbiotic relationship. "'Agrivoltaics,' the use of land for both agriculture and solar power, was at the center of a panel with a regulator and researchers recently hosted by the University of Wisconsin," reports Joe Schulz of Wisconsin Public Radio. . . . "The panel explored potential trade-offs between renewable energy and agriculture."

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Summertime can be glorious, but it can also be time to find a summer job. For rural young adults, there are quite a few options out there, reports Money magazine. "It’s helpful to start with a simple job so you can earn money and gain experience just from the added responsibility. . . . Instead of looking for available jobs, you can create your own. Offering yard work services is a great way to make your opportunities and serve your community." People with pets may be vacationing away from home and farm. If your familiar with rural animal or pet care, this could be a flexible, fun money maker.

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The woolly mammoth was an adult male in its mid 40s, 6-7 tons in weight, and
13 to 14 feet tall at the shoulder. (Photo by Daryl Marshke, University of Michigan)

Not every day do you find a 15,000-year-old animal skeleton in Iowa. "Of all the tiny spots in a sea of soybeans, Jim Bristle and Trent Satterthwaite hit the honey hole," reports Chris Bennett of Farm Journal. "When the pair of Midwest farmers dropped a backhoe bucket 8' below mature beans and felt the machinery groan and shift, they struck a massive, prehistoric beast hidden in blue clay and released the creature from a 15,000-year sleep. . . . Farmland is the vault of the unseen, and Bristle and Satterthwaite made one of the most unlikely scientific discoveries of the 21st century—a woolly mammoth skeleton alongside three telltale boulders."

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Rebecca the alpaca and her "fiber."
(H.L. Barnes, Successful Farming)

Experimental, whimsical, classic---domestically sourced fashion-fiber can be fabulous and expensive. "According to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Americans spend more than 250 million dollars on fashion and accessories every year," reports Heather Lifsey Barnes of Successful Farming. "With the demand for local fiber growing, agriculture is positioned to partner with these influencers and connect them with how fiber is grown and raised." To give educators industry know-how, some North Caroline high and middle school teachers "Toured an alpaca farm, which gave teachers a hands-on look at the fiber growing on its source. At Venezia Dream Farm, owner Star Cash raises alpaca for their fiber. . . .Cash went to school to learn how to grade the fibers."

Administration stops fighting for citizenship question on 2020 census after adverse Supreme Court decision

The 2020 census won't include the controversial citizenship question. Last week the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's stated reason for including the question but left open the possibility that another reason might be offered and accepted. Tuesday, Trump administration officials threw in the towel, ordering the Census Bureau to start printing forms for next year without the question, Michael Wines reports for The New York Times.

UPDATE, 8 p.m. July 3: “In a course reversal, a Justice Department attorney on Wednesday said the government is looking for a way to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, one day after it said it would drop that effort and was printing the form without it,” The Washington Post reports. 

A citizenship question would likely reduce responses among Latinx populations, which are prevalent in some agricultural areas, affecting many things, from political maps to federal funding.

The move to stop fighting for the question's inclusion is an abrupt about-face. "Just last week after the Supreme Court’s decision, President Trump said he was asking his lawyers to delay the census, 'no matter how long,' in order to fight for the question in court. He reiterated his unwillingness to give up in a Twitter message posted late Tuesday, saying he had asked administration officials 'to do whatever is necessary' to get a citizenship question on the census form," Wines reports. "Word of the administration’s decision to stop fighting came in a one-sentence email from the Justice Department to lawyers for plaintiffs in a New York lawsuit that sought to block the question’s inclusion."

The email didn't explain the decision, but the administration may have been concerned about getting the forms printed in time. The Census Bureau had said it needed to start printing questionnaires by July 1 to meet an April 2020 deadline for conducting the census, Wines reports.

Supreme Court hears census citizenship-question case; data show immigration boosts many rural counties

Counties where immigration prevented or minimized population loss (Stateline map based on U.S. Census Bureau data; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version)

Immigrants prevented or minimized population loss in a fifth of U.S. counties last year, and many of those are rural counties with agricultural or manufacturing jobs, Tim Henderson reports for Stateline. But some of those folks are unlikely to be counted in the 2020 census if the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to add a question about citizenship to the questionnaire.

After hearing almost 90 minutes of oral arguments, the court's "conservative majority seemed willing Tuesday to defer" to the change, "despite evidence it could lead to an undercount of millions of people," Robert Barnes and Mark Berman report for The Washington Post.

The Census Bureau has estimated that asking whether respondents are citizens will result in about 6.5 million fewer people being counted, and would most affect states and urban areas with a lot of Hispanics and immigrants, which tend to vote Democratic, Barnes and Berman report.

"That could reduce Democratic representation when congressional districts are allocated in 2021 and affect how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending are distributed," Adam Liptak reports for The New York Times. "Courts have also found that Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas could risk losing seats in the House, and that several states could lose federal money."

"Every lower-court judge to consider the issue found that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross violated federal law and regulations in attempting to include the question on the census," Barnes and Berman report. "The lower-court judges starkly rebutted Ross’s claim that the information was requested by the Justice Department to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities, and they noted his consultations with hard-line immigration advocates in the White House beforehand."

The Supreme Court's more liberal judges, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, seemed skeptical about the citizenship question, and indicated during oral arguments that they were worried the question would reduce compliance and result in less-accurate data. Meanwhile, "three of the court’s conservatives — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — indicated in an earlier iteration of the case that they were uncomfortable with the judicial branch playing a deciding role in which questions were asked or deleted," Barnes and Berman report.

"The challengers’ best hopes seem to be in persuading either Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. or Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Trump’s most recent nominee to the court, to uphold the lower courts’ decisions. But both seemed more accepting of" the administration's arguments, Barnes and Berman report. The court is expected to announce its decision in late June.

Trump deportation plan could snag in immigration-court system; cases often take years to be heard

President-elect Donald Trump's plan to deport as many as 3 million immigrants who he says have criminal records could hit a roadblock in a cluttered U.S. immigration-court system, Julia Preston reports for The New York Times. "Many of those deportations—at least hundreds of thousands—would have to be approved by immigration judges."

The immigration-court system is weighed down by a backlog of more than 520,000 cases and is failing "to deliver timely, fair decisions to people fighting deportation or asking for refuge, according to interviews with lawyers, judges and government officials," Preston reports. "With too few judges, overworked clerks and an antiquated docket based on stacks of paper files, many of the 56 courts nationwide have become crippled by delays and bureaucratic breakdowns." The backlog leads to cases sometimes taking years to be heard.

Trump's plan to freeze federal hiring would only make matters worse, preventing courts from bringing in new judges and clerks, who are federal employees, Preston writes. "Without significant new resources, the courts would probably slow Trump’s deportations to a stall. Unlike other federal courts, which are part of the judiciary, immigration courts are run by the Justice Department, making them subject to shifting political priorities in Washington."

The backlog was created by a combination of President Obama increasing immigration enforcement and Congress clamping down on spending, Preston writes. "In the past two years, the administration won increases for the courts from Congress, and the number of immigration judges rose by 65 to about 300 today. But the hiring of judges is glacially slow. With each judge completing an average of 750 cases a year, the courts would need at least 520 judges to eliminate the backlog within one year, according to an analysis by Human Rights First, a watchdog group in New York." (Ohio State University map: U.S. immigration courts)

Nearly 1/3 of rural non-citizen immigrants are poor

Poverty levels (Carsey graphic)

"Economic stability is out of reach for many rural immigrants, particularly those without U.S. citizenship," says a study by the University of New Hampshire's Carsey School of Public Policy. The study, which used 2010-14 data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, found that the poverty rate among rural non-citizen immigrants is 31.6 percent, compared to 13.7 percent for rural immigrants who are citizens.

Overall, 15.6 percent of rural immigrants are defined as "working poor," meaning they have a job but don’t earn enough to pull their household income above the federally defined poverty level, Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. The number for native-born rural residents is 8 percent. Among full-time workers, 13.5 percent of rural immigrants are considered working poor, compared to 6.1 percent of native-born residents.

Researchers found that 39.4 percent of rural non-citizen immigrants have less than a high-school education, compared to 15 percent of the rural native-born population. About 19 percent of immigrants have at least some college and 18 percent a bachelor's degree or higher.

Poverty levels by immigration status

Most immigrants, 79.3 percent, are of working age (18-65). Only 9.1 percent are under 18, and 11.6 percent are 65 or older. A higher percentage of rural immigrants are married than native-born citizens, 60.1 percent to 53.5 percent, and 35.2 percent of rural immigrants have children under 18, compared to 23 percent of native-born residents. Marema notes, "That’s a switch for rural America, which overall has a higher percentage of children and retirees than urban areas do."

Appeals court upholds decision blocking Kan. proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirement

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld an earlier decision blocking Kansas from requiring residents to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles, Brian Lowry reports for The Wichita Eagle. The decision affects 19,000 Kansans who registered to vote at the DMV without showing proof of citizenship.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, refused to register those residents to vote, citing fears of voter fraud, Lowry writes. Republicans favor voter-ID laws, saying they cut down on voter fraud, but Democrats say there is scant evidence of voter impersonation and the laws make voting more difficult for minorities—who are more likely to vote Democratic.

In its order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit said "the National Voting Rights Act preempts the Kansas proof of citizenship requirement and that 'no constitutional doubt arises as to whether the NVRA precludes Kansas from enforcing its voter qualifications,'" Lowry writes.

Kobach was set to appear for a contempt hearing Friday, "but that was canceled after the secretary of state struck an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case," Lowry writes. "Under that agreement, local election officials will have to send out letters informing all of the voters affected by the case that they have the right to vote in federal, state and local elections this November." (Read more)

Legal immigrant citizenship backlog could affect presidential outcome in battleground states

Francisca Fiero, a legal immigrant
from Mexico living in Nevada,
has been waiting since January
to receive notification of
her U.S. citizenship.
(NYT photo by Isaac Brekken)

A backlog in naturalizing the growing number of legal immigrants applying to be U.S citizens means that many won't be eligible to vote in November, Julia Preston reports for The New York Times. Last year 940,000 legal immigrants applied to be U.S. citizens, a 23 percent increase over the number of applications in 2014. "As of June 30, more than 520,000 applications were waiting to be examined, a pileup that increased steadily since last year."

A push to get immigrants to register to vote in battleground states could prove futile if many are not naturalized by their state's voter registration deadline. Three battleground states—Nevada, Florida and Colorado—have all seen significant increases in legal immigrants over the past year, Preston reports. Nevada has seen a 53 percent increase, Florida a 40 percent increase and Colorado a 30 percent increase.

Since immigrants are more likely to vote Democratic, the backlog could hurt Hillary Clinton, Preston writes. Polls in Nevada, Florida and Colorado all show that Latinos favor her by huge margins over Donald Trump. "In Florida, for example, more than 66,000 potential new voters stuck in the backlog could be enough to affect the outcome of a race that polls show is a virtual tie."

Some accuse the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of purposely taking its time processing applicants, Preston writes. Tara Raghuveer, deputy director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of 37 groups that held citizenship workshops around the country, told Preston, “The agency has developed an acute case of the slows, and it could not be a more critical moment.” Raghuveersaid said the "groups scrambled to file applications before May 1, after the immigration agency originally advised them that the process would take four to six months."

"This year for the first time the naturalization drive also had high-profile backing from the White House, which sponsored ad campaigns, gave $10 million to community groups and made fixes to make it easier to apply," Preston writes. "But officials said the White House was not monitoring the results to confirm that the immigration agency was completing naturalizations in a timely way."

Federal appeals court blocks proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirement in Ala., Ga., Kan.

A federal appeals court on Friday "blocked Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from requiring residents to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote using a national form," Sam Hananel reports for The Associated Press. Voting rights groups, who claimed a U.S. election official illegally changed proof-of-citizenship requirements on federal registration forms in the three states, "argued that the requirements could lead to the 'mass disenfranchisement' of thousands of potential voters—many of them poor, African-American and living in rural areas."

The changes, which had only been actively enforced in Kansas, require people seeking to register to vote "to show birth certificates, naturalization papers or other documents as proof of citizenship," Hananel writes. Voters in other states are only required to swear they are U.S. citizens, not show proof of citizenship.

Brian Newby, executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, changed the federal form shortly after being hired in November, Hananel writes. "EAC was created in 2002 to help avoid a repeat of the disputed 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore following ballot confusion in Florida. It is supposed to have four commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans, but one of the Democratic seats is currently vacant. The remaining commissioners never acted to approve or disapprove Newby’s action."

Webinar Sept. 1 on challenges and opportunities for rural immigrants to be part of the community

The Aspen Institute is hosting a webinar, "Helping Rural Immigrant Families Accumulate and Grow Assets," from 1-2:30 p.m. EST on Sept. 1. The webinar, which is the finale in a series about economic success for rural immigrant families, "will focus on the challenges and opportunities facing rural immigrants as they work to become part of the fabric of their communities through naturalization and home ownership," The Aspen Institute says in a description. "Participants will explore new data on rural immigrant naturalization rates, mixed-status families, and housing. Participants will also hear from two exceptional on-the-ground programs helping their immigrant neighbors accumulate assets and engage in local civic life."

Webinar presenters are: Allie Yee, Institute for Southern Studies; Beth Mattingly, University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy; Marla Tofle, One Napa Valley Initiative, Napa Valley Community Foundation; and Jeremy Stremler Community Development Corporation of Brownsville. For more information or to register click here.

Citizenship offices are few and far between, forcing rural immigrants to travel long distances

Rural immigrants usually have to take the long road to citizenship. Most states have few U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices—some have none—and most are located in urban areas, meaning it's not uncommon for those seeking naturalization to make several trips across thousands of miles before becoming U.S. citizens, Sara Millhouse reports for the Daily Yonder. (Map: USCIS offices)

Iowa only has one immigration office, in Des Moines, meaning that someone like French-born Stephanie Rickels, who lives in rural Cascade, Iowa, has to drive 183 miles each way for appointments, Millhouse writes. Her three required trips—her last appointment lasted 15 minutes—will equal 1,098 miles.

While being a teacher affords Rickels time during the summer to make three trips to Des Moines, some rural residents are not so lucky, Millhouse writes. Some people can't afford to take time off from work, while others lack the transportation. Rural transit authority is available from Cascade to Des Moines, but three trips cost about $450.

Costs and lack of transportation and time have caused some to fear that many rural immigrants skip being naturalized, thus, are ineligible to vote in a presidential election in which immigration has become a major issue, Millhouse writes. The U.S. government "estimates that 8.8 million people are eligible for citizenship. Of those, 653,416 went through the process in fiscal year 2014, the latest for which statistics are available through the government’s Office of Immigration Statistics. In 2014, 6,125—less than 1 percent—of newly-naturalized citizens lived in 'micropolitan' or noncore counties." (Read more)

Obamacare to be canceled for more than 10,000 Californians who failed to prove citizenship

More than 10,000 California residents who received coverage under federal health reform are having their insurance canceled for failing to prove citizenship or legal residency in the U.S., Chad Terhune reports for the Los Angeles Times.

"Covered California, the state-run insurance exchange, enrolled more than 1.2 million people during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act this year," Terhune writes. "For most consumers, the exchange said, it could verify citizenship or immigration status instantly with a federal data hub. But more than 148,000 enrollees were lacking proof of eligibility and needed to submit documentation. People living in the U.S. illegally aren't eligible for health law coverage." Overall, 10,474 people have failed to provide documentation, while another 7,629 documents are still being reviewed.

Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said people whose insurance has been canceled still have time to provide proof of residency, Terhune writes. Lee told him, "We are hopeful that anyone receiving these notices will respond by providing appropriate documents so we can work with them to ensure their ongoing eligibility for health coverage. Our goal is to continue coverage for anyone who is lawfully present." (Read more)

Federal judge rules that Arizona and Kansas can require registering voters to prove citizenship

A federal judge has ruled that Arizona and Kansas can "require proof of citizenship of registering voters, a decision that could well set a trend for other Republican-dominated states," Fernanda Santos reports for The New York Times. The decision "could prevent thousands of people from voting just as the governorship and other major offices are on the ballot in both states."

Arizona began requiring proof of citizenship in 2004, and Kansas in 2011. Last June the Supreme Court ruled "that Congress holds full power over federal election rules, but indicated that states could require proof of citizenship in state and local elections," Santos writes. "Federal rules require prospective voters only to sign a form attesting to their citizenship, a procedure favored by Democrats who want to increase participation of minorities and the poor in elections, but Republican officials say that fosters voter fraud."

While there is little evidence of in-person voter fraud by illegal immigrants, "the poor and minorities are likely to be affected," Santos writes, referring to studies that "have shown that the poor and minorities often lack passports and access to birth certificates needed to register under the laws in question." (Read more)

Immigration reform may stumble on citizenship issue

Rep. Paul Ryan

The prospect of immigration reform, which improved in recent weeks to the delight of agricultural interests, has faded again with comments by lawmakers. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) "said distrust of President Barack Obama runs so deep in the Republican caucus that he’s skeptical the GOP-led House would pass any immigration measure," Phillip Elliott reports for The Associated Press. "He said a plan that puts security first could pass only if lawmakers believe the administration would enforce it — an unlikely prospect given Republicans’ deep opposition to Obama." Ryan told Elliott, "This isn’t a trust-but-verify, this is a verify-then-trust approach.”

House Republicans oppose a measure that would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living here illegally, but also fear that failing to act could lead voters to turn to Democratic candidates in the next election, Elliott writes. Instead, they are blaming the White House for the legislation's failure, and "are pushing a piecemeal approach to immigration that puts a priority on security before considering a pathway for those here illegally to earn citizenship."

"That strategy runs counter to a comprehensive bill, passed through the Senate seven months ago with bipartisan support, that includes a long and difficult pathway to citizenship," Elliott writes. "The White House, meanwhile, returned to its position that any legislation must include a way for those living here illegally to earn citizenship and that the system cannot divide Americans into two classes — citizens and non-citizens." (Read more)

House may act on farmworker immigration bills

The issue of immigration reform—making a way for undocumented workers (including farm workers) to gain legal status and perhaps citizenship—has gained new momentum in Congress after a Senate-passed bill stalled in the House. President Obama and White House staffers called House offices asking to move legislation. The House, leaders of which have said it would not pass an omnibus bill, may attempt to finish two of the bills, H.R. 1773 and H.R. 1772 before 2014, Agri-Pulse reports.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote both bills. H.R. 1773 would allow admit 500,000 temporary agricultural laborers each year. H.R. 1772 would require all employers to use E-Verify, a federal work-authorization program that is now voluntary for non-federal employers.

Goodlatte hopes the House will pass the bills this year. The United Farm Workers and other immigration-reform groups have staged more and more protests across the nation. UFW brought together some California farm workers to deliver 8,000 signed letters advocating reform to Rep. Kevin McCarthy. "As majority whip and California's most powerful Republican, Congressman McCarthy not only has the power but a duty to represent one of California's leading industries," UFW Vice President Armando Elenes told Agri-Pulse.

Not everyone agrees with the proposed reforms. More than "100 groups representing workers and immigrant, civil rights and faith communities wrote to Congress Tuesday to state their opposition to H.R. 1772," Agri-Pulse reports. They said the reform wouldn't fix the immigration system; it would decrease worker protection and threaten the jobs of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and authorized workers.

Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said, "Not one single person should lose his or her job because of a government error or an employer's failure to follow the program's rules. Before this legislation is rushed to the House floor, our representatives should listen to the stories of real people who have suffered greatly due to errors in the databases on which E-Verify relies."

Companies would have from six months to two years to comply with the bill, depending on the number of employees. Farmers would have five years to comply with an E-Verify mandate, Agri-Pulse reports. Along with this, the Senate bill (S. 744) passed four months ago will help establish a blue card program for experienced farm workers.

"The new H-2C visa program included in Goodlatte's guestworker bill would allow workers to stay in the United States for up to 18 months, as opposed to the maximum of one year issued to current H-2A visa holders." (Read more)