Arizona Drafts Own Worker Bills

Arizona is working on its own guest-worker program, hoping to supply state farmers with labor—and serve as a model for the rest of the country in the process, the Christian Science Monitor reports. But though top lawmakers are behind the measure, getting permission from the federal government—whose own guest-worker program is notoriously clunky—won’t be easy.

Arizona faces big worker shortages, which some experts blame on the state’s own tough employer sanction laws, others on the national immigration deadlock. Most agree, however, that the federal program needs to change—and Arizona is willing to experiment. “We’ve heard from lawmakers around the country who are concerned,” one expert said. “Other states are going to watch this Arizona effort.” (More immigration reform stories.)