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The answer is a resounding "yes," according to Don Koivisto, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

"Michigan crops are heavily dependent upon manual harvesting or planting," Koivisto said. "We'd like to see immigration encouraged by expanding worker permits in the state—we have a real shortage of the labor necessary to do agricultural work in Michigan."

Work permits are temporary visas given to foreigners wishing to come to the United States on a non-permanent basis, most of the time for work or schooling. A federal guest worker program known as H-2A has been bringing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to work in the U.S. each year.

A 2006 study by the Michigan State University Product Center for Agricultural and Natural Resources showed that Michigan ranks fourth in the number of migrant farm workers in the country, with about 45,000 each growing season.

Norm Myers, the Oceana County Extension director, said the typical season for migrant workers begins with asparagus and ends with Christmas trees.

"The crops that we use migrant labor for are pretty much done growing, besides Christmas trees," Myers said. "Workers arrive in the spring and do asparagus, then move to cherries, peaches, apples and finish with Christmas trees."

Myers said the commodities most dependent on migrant labor are fruits and vegetables that require hand-harvesting.

"Asparagus is one of our major crops in Michigan and it takes a lot of migrant labor—it's probably the peak of our migrant season," Myers said.

The MSU study said the total economic value generated by the farm sector and related industries is $6.7 billion annually. Crops that use migrant labor account for almost 58% of that figure.

John Baker, executive director of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board in DeWitt, said migrant labor is "absolutely key" to the continued production of many crops, especially asparagus. The top-five asparagus-growing counties are Mason, Oceana, Van Buren, Manistee and Berrien.

"Roughly 99% of our asparagus crops are harvested by migrant workers," Baker said. "Currently, there's no mechanical harvesting equipment available to do the type of work that migrant labor does."

Baker said the declining number of farm workers in recent years not only reflects fewer migrants coming to Michigan, but also an unwillingness of other unemployed people to work in the agriculture industry.