Thread: Border crackdown, high wages elsewhere means farm-worker sho

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/15621991.htm

Posted on Wed, Sep. 27, 2006


Border crackdown, high wages elsewhere means farm-worker shortage

ELIZABETH WHITE

Associated Press
BATESVILLE, Texas - J. Allen Carnes needed 200 workers for the onion harvest this year on 500 acres of South Texas fields. The onion business is big in the area, and with only two months to harvest, there's little room for delay.

But Carnes ended up with less than 100 workers and fell two weeks behind, with bits and pieces of the fields unpicked. His income fell about $150,000, a significant loss.

"It's become increasingly tight over the last three or four years," said Carnes, president of Winter Garden Produce in Uvalde, 80 miles west of San Antonio. "Companies are jockeying back and forth (for workers). Last year it was just short all around."

Growers say tightened border security and longer lines for day crossers have cut the numbers of farm workers who cross the border legally or illegally. Illegal immigrant workers who used to travel the country picking different crops as the seasons changed are hesitant to migrate for fear of being caught. And the lure of higher paid jobs with better working conditions, such as construction, are keeping some farm workers away.

And the labor shortage will only get worse until Congress tackles immigration reform, growers and worker advocate groups say. The House and Senate are at an impasse over proposed legislation and whether it should include an eventual path to citizenship and guest-worker program in addition to border enforcement.

Like others who employ migrant workers, Carnes checks employees' paperwork, but said some illegal immigrants probably end up working in his fields.

According to the Department of Labor's National Agricultural Workers Survey, 53 percent of the hired crop labor force lacked authorization to work in the U.S. in 2001-02. Worker advocates and grower associations agree the actual figure is probably closer to 80 percent.

Three-quarters of the hired farm work force in the U.S. was born in Mexico. And more than 40 percent of crop workers were migrants, meaning they had traveled at least 75 miles in the previous year to get a farm job, the survey showed.

Carnes said he couldn't lure workers away from other fields with incentives like higher pay for the late-spring onion harvest because there just weren't enough workers to go around.

"We're seeing the wolf at the door," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association, referring to what he said is worsening shortages reported by many of the 300 growers, shippers and importers his organization represents.

But a spokesman for the United Farm Workers said farmers need to raise salaries to get workers.

Even if they start out in the fields, "the pay is so low, the benefits mostly nonexistent and the conditions so harsh that many workers don't stay," spokesman Marc Grossman said. "It's essentially minimum-wage work."

And that work can be back-breaking, hot work, especially picking berries in the early summer sun.

Carnes said increased border security is keeping even legal day laborers from crossing the border because lines have lengthened.

"There becomes a point where the paperwork and time doesn't equal the money," Carnes said. "I think we just scared them off with all the talk about immigration and closing the borders."

The U.S. Border Patrol has caught well over 1 million people along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last three fiscal years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In 2003, it caught just over 900,000 in the four border states.

Howard Rosenberg, an agricultural labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley, said while he's heard complaints about shortages for years, the concerns have worsened recently.

"It varies in how intensely it's felt and where it's felt and how much it's reported," Rosenberg said. "It is very difficult to tease out the realities from the perception."

Rosenberg said a border crackdown may not have as much to do with reductions as the immigrant community spreading out geographically and to different industries.

"If people think that a crackdown on the border is keeping people away, how do they really know that?" Rosenberg asked. "There's still an awful lot of activity."

Growers and farm worker advocates say the beginning of a solution is the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2005, dubbed "AgJobs."

The bill would provide temporary legal status for farmworkers who can prove they worked at least 100 days during a certain period. The workers could apply for a green card if they work an additional 360 days in agriculture over the subsequent six years.

Without comprehensive immigration reform the fallout is that growers will move their operations south of the border, said Tim Chelling, a vice president of the Western Growers Association, which represents growers in California and Arizona.

"It's more than anecdotal; we know that they're down there to the tune of thousands and thousands of acres," he said.

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the conservative New York-based Manhattan Institute think tank, said growers are "half out the door already."

"A Mexican worker is going to pick these crops one way or the other, and the only question is whether they pick them here or across the border in Mexico," Jacoby said.

Without comprehensive immigration reform the fallout is that growers will move their operations south of the border, said Tim Chelling, a vice president of the Western Growers Association, which represents growers in California and Arizona.

"It's more than anecdotal; we know that they're down there to the tune of thousands and thousands of acres," he said.

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the conservative New York-based Manhattan Institute think tank, said growers are "half out the door already."

"A Mexican worker is going to pick these crops one way or the other, and the only question is whether they pick them here or across the border in Mexico," Jacoby said.

More empty threats. You and I both know that many of these farms are not going to relocate to Mexico. Even if they did, so what, let them go. Perhaps some of these huge 1000-acre plus corporate farms would be broken up and purchased by true American families who would be interested in running smaller scale farms. The sort of farms that families can work without the help of 100-200 illegal immigrants. I'm talking about 200-300-acre farms that can be worked by a farmer, his wife, and children. When it is time to bring in the crops, just hire local kids (wouldn't need that many). Isn't that the way many of the farms operated in the United States years ago? In my opinion, our country would be a lot better off with a lot more small-scale operations and less huge corporate operations. It's the huge corporate farms that hire the lobbyist, use hundreds of illegal immigrants, annually donate thousands to their bought politicians, etc. The small-scale farmer doesn't have the money or time to worry about buying politicians and hiring lobbyist - they are busy with the business of living and providing for their families.

My brother, sister, and I were raised on a 280-acre farm. One of my uncles has a 320-acre farm. His 32 year old son (and family) pretty much run the day to day operation now. To my knowledge, a migrant worker or illegal immigrant has never worked a day on one of these two farms. Many of these huge corporate owned farms will give you the impression they are family owned and operated, but more times than not, it isn't true.

Futhermore, we're doing many of these large-scale operations a favor by depriving them of cheap labor. Once the cheap labor is gone, they'll be forced to become more innovative and advanced. Isn't it about time they moved into the 21st-century? Don't let them fool you, once the cheap labor is gone, they'll figure out a way to get their crops in after the growing season. If things keep going as they are, the farms won't be caught off guard next year and there will be no excuse for crops rotting in the fields. Of course I'm not totally convinced all the crops are rotting now, even though they keep telling us they are.