http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,645194675,00.html

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Migrant issue is a threat to farms

Agriculture in Utah, U.S. dependent on workers


By Deborah Bulkeley
Deseret Morning News

GREEN RIVER — Looking out over mounds of freshly picked melons ready for shipping, Nancy Dunham says she isn't planning on retiring any time soon.

When asked how long she'll keep working, the 75-year-old woman who has farmed in Green River since the 1950s, replies, "forever."

She's proud her six children are all involved in agriculture, including her son Chris, 45, who's also here today.

The Dunhams' way of life is deeply rooted here, but they say their livelihood is being threatened by the same challenges farmers across the country face — everything from rising fuel prices to overseas competition.

And, to make matters worse, they're also facing a shrinking labor supply as Congress clamps down on the Mexican border and workers continue to leave for higher paying industries.

"I've done this for 30 years, and you're not going to find many white people who will do farm labor," he says. "There are other things we can do besides melons, but we can't do it without field workers."

The melons at Green River farms are still picked by hand. Nancy Dunham says she hires veterans and retirees but says much of her labor is migrant from Mexico.

"The state really benefits greatly from having these people here," Dunham says. "Until agriculture is mechanized completely, there is no substitute for hand labor."

The Dunhams and other farmers here say they ask new hires to show proper documents but have no way of verifying them. While the farmers here acknowledge the importance of national security, they're hoping any immigration reform will include a way for migrant workers to cross the border easily and legally.
No proof

A few months ago, the immigration debate came to a head with thousands of Latinos taking to the streets in protest of a U.S. House measure that would tighten border security and crack down on those who employ illegal immigrants. The Senate passed its own measure, which would legalize many of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. The debate has since stalled, as House and Senate members have yet to start work on a compromise.

Farmers do a good job asking for documentation but have no way to verify it, says Randy Parker, chief executive officer of the Utah Farm Bureau.

However, there is evidence that a large segment is undocumented. Corrie Jensen, program manager for the Utah Farmworker Program, estimates that only about 5 percent of migrant workers are legal.

As one foreman put it, "You won't find any legal people to come work in the field."

Stark evidence of that claim can be found in Utah County, where a federally subsidized affordable housing complex for farm workers has yet to house a farm worker since it opened two years ago. Instead, it's been opened to other low-income workers.

Gene Carly, executive director of the Utah County Housing Authority, says that in order to qualify for the housing, a farm worker must prove legal status.

"It was surprising," Carly says. "Before we developed this new facility, there were 13 essentially substandard farm units there that were not meeting code. Yet, the facilities were occupied at almost 100 percent when we took it over."

Green River farmer Greg Vetere said his workers all have papers, but he acknowledged, "I'm sure a lot of them are not real green cards they show you. I have no way to say if they are legal or not."

Federal law currently doesn't require that employers verify their new hires' paperwork, though Social Security numbers can be verified through federal agencies.

Vetere said talk in Washington of potentially cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, without providing a way for the immigrants to work legally, is "a big concern."

"What they need to do is fingerprint the ones coming over, if they have a job, and let them work for six to eight months and live a better life over there, and help the farmers," Vetere said. "If we don't have workers from over there, Americans aren't going to get out in the field. ... We need the workers."

Recruiting woes

Parker says competition from other industries has combined with tighter border security to put farmers in a pinch. Farmers can't afford to pay wages offered by other industries such as construction, hospitality and the oil fields.

"One of the problems we're concerned about is a lot of migrant workers and immigrant workers come into the agricultural industry when they enter the country, but quickly start looking for other opportunities," he says. "We're not at the height of our harvest time yet, but we are concerned we're going to have some labor shortages."

Parker says labor shortages have been reported already in Arizona, California and Washington.

"The problem is when it's ripe and ready to be harvested you have a relatively short window to get that picked," he says

Watermelon farmers are fortunate in that respect. Nancy Dunham says the picking season lasts about three months. She says some fruits must be picked in 10 days or less. Chris Dunham adds it's hard to compete in a global society where workers in some countries make only $1 a day or less.

Migrant farm workers in the Green River fields say they make about $60 to $80 for a 10- to 13-hour workday during the season that spans from late July to early October. In Mexico, they say, they'd make about $10 a day.

Abel Quinonez, 58, has been a migrant farm worker for years. He often spends his summers in Green River picking melons. Sometimes it's oranges or tomatoes in Florida.

The money he makes here helps pay for his two sons' education in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. The migrant life, he says in Spanish, smiling, is "very difficult, but very content."

Still it's not as much money as other industries offer. Gaby Gonzalez, a foreman for the Thanes farm, had to travel to Grand Junction, Colo., to find many of his workers this season.

"Recruiting, just for the harvest, it's a challenge," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen."

The nation's agricultural labor force is decreasing despite an all-time high in wages, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The national average wage of $9.79 an hour for farm work is up nearly 5 percent from a year ago. However, the number of hired workers on U.S. farms was 718,000 during the first quarter of 2006, down 3.75 percent.
Economic impact

Paul Schlengel, director of public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says an existing H2A visa program for temporary farm workers is so tedious most farmers don't use it.

"It's critical to have an ongoing guest worker program that works," he says. "The (Senate) bill is not quite there."

The Senate bill would create an agricultural blue card that could lead to permanent legal status for some agricultural workers. Schlengel says those workers likely would eventually leave agriculture.

That's where he sees a gap in the Senate bill. Currently, those who employ workers under the existing H2A visa program for seasonal agricultural workers must often pay a wage that's higher than the area's prevailing wage.

The AFBF is calling for reform that would allow farmers to pay the prevailing wage, saying the wage issue is a key reason why the H2A visa isn't widely used.

Federal figures suggest that currently only a fraction of the nation's immigrant farm workers have H2A visas.

In fiscal year 2005, only 7,011 of the visas were issued to seasonal agricultural workers, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That's down from 22,141 in 2004.

If the industry's access to migrant labor were cut off, it would cost as much as $5 billion to $9 billion a year in the short term and could lead to a long-term production loss of $6.5 billion to $12 billion, according to the AFBF report.

In Utah, agriculture accounted for $493 million in 2004, or just under 1 percent of the state's $82.6 billion gross state product, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

But Alex Segura, director of the Utah Minuteman Project, says rather than relying on cheap illegal immigrant labor, the farming industry should look to automation.

"They've used illegal labor for so long they've gotten used to being spoiled," Segura says. "There just seems to be this attitude that because they've got cheap labor they don't want to automate. ... Just a flood of illegal aliens and creating burdens for the taxpayer is not an answer."



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Monday: A multi-agency outreach program helps migrant farmworkers with wide range needs.



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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com