They can't find enough help among U.S. citizens.

Excerpt:

Last August, the state joined the Washington Growers League in a campaign to recruit local workers in anticipation that too few guest workers would be available for the apple harvest.

Valoria Loveland, director of the state Department of Agriculture, said that even after an extensive advertising campaign, only 40 people showed up to fill the 1,700 potential spots.

"Local people who want to work are already employed, or are not interested in doing the seasonal and physically demanding work that characterizes our specialty crop production," Loveland said in a letter this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The guest-worker legislation, called the AgJOBS bill, is controversial because it also would establish a path to legalize some undocumented workers already in the country.

Should Congress liberalize the guest worker program?

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