WARNING: Prensa Latina Newspaper biased article:

Aliens Key to US Agro-Industry
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID ... 7950DA0%7D)&language=EN

Washington, Aug 23 (Prensa Latina) The failure of migratory reforms in the United States has paved the way for the administration of President George W. Bush to increase repression of illegal aliens, say experts.

Agro-industrial sectors warn that if these roundups and deportations of illegal immigrant workers continue, there will be an agricultural catastrophe in the coming months.

In spite of their contribution to the US economy, these workers are now persecuted like criminals by agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office (ICE)..

Ralph Pistoresi, member of wine and cattle farmers in California said that the majority of field workers are illegals.

Fear in the sector spread when the ICE announced recently that it was beginning a search campaign to deport farm laborers with false identity documents.

Tom Nassif, president of the Western Agro Industrial Association said this persecution of illegal workers has reduced manual labor by half.

In his opinion the coming crisis will have an impact on fertilization, refrigeration, transportation and insurance companies as well as chemical and pesticide companies.

That association has more than three thousand companies producing an estimated 50 billion dollars yearly, in California and Arizona alone.

These two states together with Oregon and Washington are the most affected by the lack of manual labor coming, mostly, from Mexico and Central America.