Harvest time is over, but Idaho farmers’ use of undocumented workers is back in the news.

Temporary U.S. Labor Department rule changes for work-related immigration will become permanent two days before Barack Obama takes office, the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation notes.

Meanwhile, two North Idaho legislators plan to introduce again a twice-rejected bill to penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants — and that has the Idaho Farm Bureau weighing in again.

John Thompson, the Farm Bureau’s director of public relations, was interviewed Wednesday on the Lou Dobbs Independent Nation radio show. (This three-hour afternoon talk show is not aired by any stations in Ada or Canyon counties.)

Dobbs asked Thompson why he doesn’t support penalizing employers.

“Right now it puts the onus of verification on farmers,” Thompson said. “Those people are frequently presented with fake documents. We’re not experts on documents.”

Dobbs, well-known for his opposition to illegal immigration, replied, “That’s the same argument we hear from a lot of illegal employers of illegal aliens.”

Thompson: “From an employer’s standpoint though, we feel like this is the federal government’s job, and they haven’t done it well.”

Meanwhile, the federal changes affect the H-2A guest worker program, which lets farmers to hire foreign workers using temporary visas for jobs farmers cannot find Americans to fill. That’s similar to the slightly smaller H2-B program tech companies use.

The new rules are designed to make it easier for farmers, who widely ignore H2-A now because of red tape and delays the Farm Bureau says cost farmers precious harvesting time.