Even though President Obama ordered a halt on all new or pending Bush regulations, the effort will not prevent the implementation of the new guest worker rules. Because the regulations took effect before Jan. 20, it would be harder for Obama to block it. The following is a statement from Erik Nicholson, UFW national vice president:
“It was a furtive move by the Bush Administration to have the new H2A regulations go into effect before Jan. 20. He obviously wanted to make sure that those regulations would carry over even after the inauguration and that Obama would not be able to block it. Nothing surprises us anymore from former President Bush. Like our new President Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech yesterday, ‘… know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.’ The new regulations to the guest worker program will cause harm to U.S. farm workers as well to foreign laborers. But, the United Farm Workers will work with the Obama administration to make sure those rules are overturned.”